Loess Hills organization finds funds for another year

An organization that works to maintain the environmental standing of the Loess Hills in western Iowa will stay open despite losing all of its state funding. The Loess Hills Alliance had faced the possibility of closing July 1st, but boardmember Maury Welte says they’ve found some funds from projects that weren’t done and will have 50-thousand dollars for the new fiscal year. The group has worked with farmers in the area that stretches from Plymouth to Pottawattamie County to get them to keep from developing or farming certain areas. He says this will at least keep the office open.While the office is staying open, Welte says it’ll operate at a bare minimum.He says the one person on staff will try to hold the board together, and won’t be able to do any of the preservation things they’ve done in the past. Welte says the future is clear if their funding isn’t renewed by the legislature in January.A year from now they’ll close shop. Welte says the organization originally asked for 400-thousand dollars, was given 100-thousand, and then saw that cut to nothing.