Polk County Conservation is creating a non-profit group to support its future operations in Iowa’s most populous county.
The Conservation Foundation of Polk County will help raise money to expand the department’s projects in central Iowa, including the maintaining of parks, wildlife areas and recreational trails.
Development manager Addison McKown says they want their work to reach more people.
“Not just the conservation-in-action,” McKown says, “but how we’re engaging with different communities of different backgrounds, different socioeconomic statuses.”
McKown says the nonprofit will allow the agency to build more partnerships that help support these projects.
Community outreach supervisor Jessica Lown says this work has extended well beyond Polk County for years.
“Trails don’t stop at a county border, parks don’t even stop at a county border,” Lown says, “and so we collaborate often with our partners all around us to expand these resources.”
Lown says they want to continue building public and private partnerships to fund growth. She says support from these connections will help keep public land and recreation accessible for Polk and surrounding counties.
(By Maura Curran, Iowa Public Radio)