IARN — Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig announced today that a successful Water Quality Initiative (WQI) demonstration project in northeast Iowa is expanding into a new phase, with a specific focus on edge-of-field conservation practices.
Previous WQI projects in the Central Turkey River Watershed, which have been in place since 2014, have generated positive results through the seeding of over 43,700 acres of cover crops since the start of the project. Cover crop utilization, an effective in-field conservation practice, will continue to be emphasized. During the next phase, this project will include an added focus on the installation of edge-of-field practices such as saturated buffers, bioreactors and wetlands, three practices which help to filter the water before it enters our waterways. Grade stabilization structures could also be constructed, depending on the landscape.
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