Spotlight Stories
Explore IAWA’s original reporting on the latest conservation news
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Drainage water recycling improves crop yields and water quality
Posted onEmerging Farm Resiliency Practice Provides Significant Farm-Level and Public Benefits, New Report from EDF New economic analysis of drainage water recycling shows the practice can increase crop yields and improve water quality, highlighting the opportunity for public and private co-investment strategies October 21, 2025 – In the face of increasingly volatile and extreme weather across…
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ISU Announces N-FACT User Experience Updates
Posted onSeptember 29, 2025 (AMES, Iowa) — The Iowa Nitrogen Initiative (INI) team announced updates to N-FACT, Iowa State University’s dynamic nitrogen fertilizer decision support tool. The updates incorporate user feedback and are intended to improve ease-of-use and deeper understanding of the tool and its outputs. Since release in February 2025, N-FACT has been used by…
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How Iowa Farmers Can Lead on Water Quality
Posted onThe Drop: September 2025 By Joe McClure Cover crops can be a great conservation tool, but they need to be balanced with the needs of the cash crop—and the waterways that stretch across the great state of Iowa. As chief officer at Iowa Soybean Association’s (ISA’s) Research Center for Farming Innovation (RCFI), I spend a…
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Sophia Campbell Wins Watershed Award
Posted onSophia Campbell Wins 2025 Iowa Watershed Coordinator of the Year By Rebekah Jones SOPHIA CAMPBELL WINS IOWA WATERSHED AWARD For her work in the Yellow River Headwaters of Winneshiek County WINNESHIEK COUNTY, IA (IAWA) — Sophia Campbell has been named a recipient of the prestigious Iowa Watershed Coordinator of the Year Award for her work as…
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Iowa Cover Crop wins Team Award
Posted onIowa Cover Crop wins team award for statewide network of cover crop advocates By Rebekah Jones JEFFERSON, IA (IAWA) — Iowa Cover Crop (ICC), a Jefferson-based conservation business co-owned by Bill and Melissa Frederick and James and Megan Holz, has been named the 2025 recipient of the Iowa Watershed Team Impact Award. They will be recognized…
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FlyCID Director Wins Iowa Watershed Impact Award
Posted onFlyCID Director Wins Iowa Watershed Impact Award By Tom Collins CEDAR RAPIDS, IA (IAWA) – Marty Lenss, Airport Director for the Eastern Iowa Airport, has won the Individual Impact Award for water quality in Iowa. His efforts include founding a nonprofit for water quality, employing conservation practices on the farmland surrounding the airport, and working…
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ACWA Chairman Wins Lifetime Achievement Award
Posted onHarry Ahrenholtz, Chairman of the Board for Agriculture’s Clean Water Alliance (ACWA), a non-profit committed to improving Iowa’s water quality, has won the 2025 Watershed Lifetime Achievement Award.
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Rooted in Stewardship: How Iowa Corn Growers Can Stay the Course on Conservation
Posted onBy Greg Wandrey, Ph.D., Director of Sustainability, Iowa Corn Growers Association As an Iowa row-crop farmer, you know that cover crop season doesn’t start after harvest—it starts during the growing season. Although most cover crops are planted after harvest, some of you are already seeding cover crop seed into the standing crop before harvest. It’s…
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Momentum and Mission: Why I Believe in Iowa’s Conservation Future
Posted onBy Jeff Lucas As a kid who grew up in Southeast Iowa where the Skunk and Des Moines rivers pour into the Mississippi, I developed an early respect for farmers and their role in improving the water we use every day. Now, I’m grateful to mark my one-year anniversary as executive director of Iowa Agriculture…
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Farmer leadership shines in NW Iowa
Posted onFarmer leadership shines in NW Iowa By Rebekah Jones In Northwest Iowa, a small but mighty movement is reshaping the way communities approach conservation. The Northwest Iowa Ag Stewardship Alliance, a grassroots coalition of local producers, is working to expand cover crops and no-till by putting farmers in the driver’s seat of sustainable agriculture. What…