The University of Iowa is reviewing its lease on the MacBride Nature Recreation Area to determine whether it makes sense to keep the nature area for economic and educational purposes.
Connie Mutel, a retired UI hydro science and engineering professor, says the area is valuable to thousands of K-through-12 students who participate in the university’s Wildlife Instruction and Leadership Development Program.
“We can use it in the future. We have that possibility,” Mutel says. “If we get rid of it now, all of those possibilities are moot. They’re gone, and that’s especially bad when our natural world is being degraded by climate change and by loss of biodiversity.”
The Army Corps of Engineers has leased the land to the UI since the 1960s. Mutel says the area is important for a host of environmental research.
“To throw away the sites where we can study that, do research on it, expose people, students to the integrity of the natural world,” Mutel says, “why are we getting rid of the one place on campus where they can do that?”
A ten-member committee started its review in September and is examining the area’s usage and maintenance.
Campus members can provide input until March 14th. The review is to be complete by May 1st.
(By James Kelley, Iowa Public Radio)