Family-Outdoors

It’s  10 o’clock  on a summer night along a gravel road anywhere in Iowa. In the farm pond next to the road a raucous chorus of male frogs are making themselves heard as they vie for mates.  A volunteer stands clipboard in hand, ear cocked, mentally sorting out each of the calling species and the number of individuals using this seemingly ordinary pond.  Skip to a Saturday morning by the river where another volunteer has binoculars trained on the tallest tree in the area.  In this tree is a one ton nest, home to two bald eagles and their young.  Are there two or three young in that nest?  Hard to tell and a follow up visit will be needed; in the meantime, notes are taken and a peaceful hour is spent watching one of the most spectacular birds in North America.  These volunteers collecting data were trained through Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ Volunteer Wildlife Monitoring Program.   “We don’t have enough staff in the D...

Last year, more than 8,000 Iowa taxpayers helped boost wildlife conservation with donations to the Fish and Wildlife Fund on their tax form. It is the third year in a row donations to the fund have increased, a trend that Stephanie Shepherd, DNR diversity wildlife biologist, hopes to continue in 2014. “The number of Iowans donating to the fund is growing after a 10-year downward trend,” said Shepherd. “Those donations go directly to research and habitat development for some of Iowa’s most vulnerable animal species, so the funds are very important for natural resources.” According to Shepherd, 8,000 Iowans donated almost $133,000 last spring when completing their 2012 tax forms. The Fish and Wildlife Fund, known popularly as the “Chickadee Check-off,” is a mechanism the Iowa Legislature created in the 1980s for Iowa citizens to donate to wildlife conservation on the Iowa state tax form. At its height, Iowans donated more than $200,000 annually to the fund. According to Shepherd, ...