We need to protect Iowa’s Natural Areas
- Roughly half of Iowa’s rivers, lakes, and streams fail to meet water quality standards
- Less than 10 percent of Iowa’s wetlands – natural spaces that help prevent flooding and provide habitat for wildlife – remain, amounting to a loss of 5 million acres of wetlands.
- Over the last two decades, Iowa has lost more than 1.6 million acres of habitat suitable for pheasants and other small game
- Iowa loses an average of 5 tons per acre of soil, our major economic engine, each year to erosion
Iowa’s Water and Land Legacy (IWiLL)
Iowa’s Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund
It’s our legacy to conserve clean water, productive agricultural soils, and abundant natural resources in which to fish, hunt, hike, and enjoy nature. That is why, in 2010, Iowans overwhelmingly voted to create the Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund.
Now we must take the crucial next step of directing revenue to the Trust Fund to ensure that this permanent, constitutionally protected
funding source is available to conserve Iowa’s water, soil, habitat, parks, and trails for generations to come.