Gipp says, “It’s how you help people recover from that event is the biggest struggle that we have and also to see if there’s anything we can do to avoid a repeat of that in the future.” The authority makes recommendations on policies affecting the Missouri River. Besides the D.N.R., groups involved include the state departments of Homeland Security and Agriculture as well as federal agencies, like FEMA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Gipp says making repairs to the damaged floodwalls all along the river is a high priority.

“The levees are an important part of that because people were accustomed to going behind the levees,” Gipp says. “They were told, initially, that what’s going to occur after the six major dam and reservoirs were built upstream. I guess that Mother Nature told us that you can maybe delay it but you can’t get rid of the flooding aspect.” Gipp says much of the D.N.R.’s role is to help state and federal agencies coordinate during the recovery process.

“A lot of what we do, especially when it comes to levee issues, flood plain issues, is depending on the Corps and FEMA and the reimbursement for that,” Gipp says. “I think there’s a good coordination. Some of that was learned simply because of the experiences on the east side of the state in 2008.” He says the panel will also discuss current and potential hydrologist roles and responsibilities in the state.

“The Natural Resources Commission overstepped its authority and the intention of the legislature,” said Representative Clel Baudler, a Republican from Greenfield.

Lawmakers voted last year to allow dove hunting, but the Iowa Natural Resources Commission drafted a rule that would have required the use of steel shot rather than lead shot during the dove hunting season. Representative Mary Mascher, a Democrat from Iowa City, said the commission did the research, looking at the hunting rules in other states, and did what they thought was best.

“I do not think it is in the best wisdom of this state and the people of this state for us to overturn that,” Mascher said.

Some have argued lead shot is toxic to birds and other wildlife that eat the stray bullets that wind up on the ground or in the water. Representative Anesa Kajtazovic, a Democrat from Waterloo, supports a ban on lead shot.

“Lead has been proven to be harmful. I have done much research on this,” Katazovic said. “The most surprising feedback that I’ve had from my constituents has been from those who do hunt, from hunters telling me, ‘You know, lead is not necessary.’”

Baudler said other “scientific studies” dispute the idea lead shot is a threat to wildlife.

“The intent of the legislation that we passed last year was extremely clear,” Baudler said. “…This is about policy and the administration of rules.”

AUDIO of House debate. 

A senate committee has endorsed the idea of allowing lead shot during dove hunting season, so the next stop for this debate is in the full Senate.

She says, “First of all, it’s just finding out about the flooding, looking at the numbers and finding out the extremes and then finding out, not just the water amount, but the damage amounts, talking to people and hearing what happened to them.” McCarthy says members of the Corps of Engineers started to react early in the spring as soon as they saw the massive inflows of snow melt and rain move into the reservoir system.

“By May 1, they recognized that they had a lot of water to get rid of, so they had actually started to get rid of water in the beginning of April,” McCarthy says. “Even if they had released more water in April than they did, they couldn’t have evacuated all that water. It was just a tremendous amount of water that came down.”

While she admits it’s difficult to strike a perfect balance, she says the report recommends the Corps find a way to set aside more upstream flood control storage space to avoid a repeat. “That’s really what was needed this year,” McCarthy says. “If you do have that, you have less water in the reservoir so you have less water for recreation and less water for downstream water uses and for irrigation, so this is the problem the whole Missouri River system needs to look at.”

Road repairs from the flooding in Iowa alone exceed 50-million dollars. The Corps estimates almost $600-million in damage was done just to levees along the river.

Trumpeter swans

A wildlife biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources is asking Iowans to consider donating money to wildlife conservation when they fill out their state tax form.

Fewer than 8,000 people chose to donate to the Fish and Wildlife Fund during the 2010 tax year and Stephanie Shepherd says it could be because tax preparers may not ask whether a client wants to donate.

“A lot of times the tax preparer may forget to ask about that or gloss over that,” Shepherd said.

 ”So, if someone doesn’t go into their tax preparer, kind of ready and knowing that they want to give and bring that out up front, sometimes it can be overlooked and won’t even be asked about.”

The nearly 8,000 people who donated to the tax checkoff last year represents just 0.5% of Iowa’s taxpayer population. Still, Shepherd said the $127,000 in contributions marked the first increase in donations since 2007.

“It was a nice little bump. It’s still significantly less than it was in the past, but it’s always nice to seeing things going up rather than down,” Shepherd said. The Fish and Wildlife Checkoff and other checkoffs appear on line 58 of electronic and paper versions of Iowa’s 1040 tax forms.

All proceeds from the checkoff support the D.N.R.’s Wildlife Diversity Program. “We’re in charge of all those species you can’t hunt, fish or trap. So, pretty much anything you can think of – from leopard frogs to bald eagles. That’s what we’re in charge of and that adds up to be over 1,000 species,” Shepherd said.

She credits the checkoff with the successful comebacks of species such as the peregrine falcon, trumpeter swan and osprey.

Mourning dove.

The days may be numbered for a state rule that bans the use of lead shot when hunting mourning doves.

Lawmakers established a dove hunting season in Iowa last year and the state’s Natural Resources Commission later voted to require “non-toxic” shot after critics complained lead shot was an environmental hazard.

But two subcommittees — one in the Iowa House, the other in the Iowa Senate — have now voted to over-ride that rule and let dove hunters use lead shot. Seventy-nine-year-old Lyle Goodrich says he can’t use the “non-toxic” shot in his light-weight gun.

“You cannot shoot steel through it,” Goodrich says. “It’ll ruin the barrels on it.” Hunters like Goodrich also complain that “non-toxic” steel shot is dramatically more expensive.

Cynthia Hanson who’s with a group called “Lead is Poison” says the doves who aren’t killed during the hunting season eat the lead shot left behind.

“It’s not going to be an overnight decimation of the doves,” she says. “But we will slowly decimate that dove population by poisoning them.”

Hunters say there are isolated incidents of doves eating lead shot and they discount studies suggesting it’s harmful for humans to eat game killed with lead shot. Terry Little is with the Iowa Outdoor Partnership.

“There have been a couple that show that people that eat game meat do have slightly elevated (lead) levels,” he says. “But then so do people over 65 and people that live in older homes.”

Legislative leaders predict both the House and Senate will eventually act to overturn the commission-approved ban on lead shot for hunting mourning doves in Iowa.

“We are going to be seeing a shift as January goes on to more La Nina-like conditions where temperatures will turn colder,” Todey says. “By later in January, most of the upper part of the basin will go to below-average temperatures, which will be in contrast to what we’ve seen recently.” So far, he says, none of the conditions that spawned widespread flooding in the region last year are appearing this year.

“For much of the basin, where we have very dry soil conditions in certain areas or moderately dry soil conditions, which allows the soil moisture capacity to take up any additional moisture at this point,” Todey says. “That’s quite a contrast from what we had last year where we had fairly widespread wet soil.”

A year ago, heavy snow accumulation combined with an extremely wet spring to create record flooding on the Missouri. Todey, who is working with the federal government on long-range forecasts, says it simply hasn’t snowed much this winter. “There have been a few snows that have come along,” Todey says. “Most of them have not been long-lived. They’ve melted off, so there is very little snow in the basin.”

He says the weather could still break either way, above- or below-average snow and rain for the remainder of the winter.

Kevin Baskins is spokesman for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, which oversees the operation of the facility. “We’re not entirely surprised. As the economy’s improved, we’ve had more people going down there,” Baskins said. “I’ve never really heard a negative report from somebody who has been at Honey Creek.”

Deputy State Auditor Andy Nielsen said 2011 was the best year for Honey Creek since the resort opened in September 2008. “It’s an improvement over past years – at least they’re generating some income. But they’re still not where they need to be,” Nielsen said.

More than $30 million is left on the bond that financed construction of the resort — which includes a lodge, convention center, aquatic center and 18-hole golf course. The Iowa D.N.R. paid about $1.8 million to cover Honey Creek’s debts last year.

Baskins says it’s not clear what the future holds. “Certainly, we want to see continued growth in the income being generated by Honey Creek,” Baskins said. “The question is what is its potential and what can we expect in terms of revenue to cover operating costs and satisfying bonds as well?” In 2010, Honey Creek Resort lost $46,000.

Mourning dove (DNR photo)

Legislators are likely to engage in a spirited debate over what kind of bullets may be fired at doves. Last year, in uncharacteristically speedy fashion, lawmakers voted to legalize dove hunting in Iowa.

But Senator Dick Dearden of Des Moines and others are upset with the Iowa Natural Resources Commission’s decision to forbid hunters from using lead shot when firing at doves.

“People talk about the legislature sneaking this (law) through and the reality is they snuck through that (restriction),” Dearden says. “They came through at the last minute and made the rule.” The rule requires the use of steel shot for dove hunting, but a resolution that would nullify that rule is pending in both the Iowa House and the Iowa Senate.

Representative Henry Rayhons of Garner stopped by a local gun shop last week and heard lots of complaints about steel shot. “It’s not as accurate,” Rayhons says. “It’s harder on the guns and it’s darned near twice as expensive.” Critics say animals, like ducks and eagles, die after eating the lead shot lying on the ground that didn’t wind up in a bird.

Dearden, a life-long hunter, accuses those opponents of using the lead-shot issue as a smoke-screen to try to derail the entire dove hunting law. “It’s all about doves,” Dearden says. “It has nothing to do with eagles or anything else.” Dearden says he got plenty of hate mail after spearheading passage of the dove hunting law last year.

“My favorite was a woman who said: ‘You’re a sick old man. I hope you die while hunting mourning doves,’” Dearden says. “I e-mailed her back and said: ‘So do I.’” Critics of lead shot say it’s a danger to humans, too, who eat bird meat that’s riddled with lead fragments.

One study suggested lead particles have been found up to a foot and a half away, causing a greater risk of lead poisoning to humans than previously thought.

Protesters organized by ICCI gathered at the capitol today.

Hundreds people gathered in the rotunda of the state capitol today for what they said was a response to the governor’s Condition of the State address.

 Protesters organized by Iowan Citizens for Community Improvement chanted “put people first” and then “where’s our jobs” as Governor Branstad made his way from the House chamber to his formal office after his speech.

ICCI member Barb Kalbach led the crowd in several cheers and then talked about the reason for the gathering.

“We come here today to set the legislative agenda for 2012, and we’re here to send a message to 150 legislators and to Governor Branstad,” Kalbach said.

The group’s agenda includes: Protecting Iowa’s water, air and quality of life; Protecting all Iowans regardless of immigration status; Standing up for good affordable credit for all; Giving everyday Iowans a voice by removing big money from politics, and not balancing the budget on the backs of everyday Iowans.

Several speakers talked about the various points of the agenda. Danny Homan, the president of AFSCME, the union that covers most state workers, spoke about jobs.

Protesters met Governor Branstad as he returned to his office following the Condition of the State address,

“Where is the compassion? Where is the assistance for the unemployed in Iowa,?” Homan asked. “I see no compassion or concern for the working class, when a governor who talks about creating new jobs closes Workforce Development offices across this state.”

Gloria Aguilar is a small business owner from Des Moines and talked about immigration issues in both Spanish and English. “We want an Iowa were we put the people first,” Aguilar said to cheers.

“We want people first before big corporations.” The audience cheered her again at the end of her remarks.

Bloomfield farmer, Garry Klicker, spoke directly about the governor. “The rich are able to steal our hard-earned money because they own politicians like Terry Branstad,” Klicker said.

“Terry’s reverse Robin Hood theory of stealing from the poor and giving to the rich has been accepted by his party. But now he and his friends are no longer satisfied with stealing our money, now they want to deregulate the corporate industries that poison the air we breathe the water we drink, the land we walk on. The governor’s position seems to be, it’s not enough that we live for nothing, we should also live in filth.”

Following the rally, the group presented it’s agenda to the governor.

The Governor’s spokesperson, Tim Albrecht, issued this response to the rally:
“The governor believes that every Iowan deserves a good-paying job, and a more effective and efficient government. Gov. Branstad today shared his vision for greater opportunity for all Iowans. Those demonstrators today were perfectly within their right to share their ideas as well.”

Audio from rally part 1: ICCI 18:53

 Audio from rally part 2: ICCI 19:45

“Radon is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, radioactive gas that is produced from decay naturally occurring in the soil and it enters homes through their basements,” Sandquist says. “We are encouraging people to test their homes to see if they have radon in their home and if so, to take care of it.”

Testing kits are easy to use and usually cost less than $20. Sandquist says most of the state’s American Lung Association chapters will have them in stock. Sandquist says, “You keep the kit in the basement or the lowest level of the home and you send the test away and the results come back and let you know the level of radon that is in your home or if there’s no radon in your home.”

 Homes with high radon levels can usually be fixed with simple and affordable venting techniques. “It is estimated there are 400 deaths per year in Iowa that are caused by radon-induced lung cancer,” Sandquist says. “It’s about the same number of annual deaths that are seen in Iowa for traffic fatalities.”

Governor Branstad is proclaiming this as Radon Action Month for the state as radon levels are highest during the winter months.

Learn more by calling 800-383-5992 or visit: “www.healthhouse.org”

By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City