Spirit Lake, Iowa (RI) – The Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation is working to preserve one of the last pieces of undeveloped shoreline on East Lake Okoboji. The foundation bought the 50-acre property in 2021 for eight million dollars and has been restoring native habitat. Joe Jayjack, the foundation’s director of external affairs, says this year’s check list includes removing some man-made terraces.
The area is called Narrows Preserve and includes over two thousand feet of East Lake Okoboji’s shore. When the work is finished, the foundation plans to open the area to the public.
The Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation has an option to purchase another 73 acre tract of land in the city limits of Arnolds Park. Jayjack says it’s an area surrounded by three bodies of water in the Iowa Great Lakes region.
The foundation faces an October deadline to raise one-point-nine million dollars to purchase the property, which has never been developed.
