This Sunday marked the start of Soil and Water Conservation Week, a time to recognize the importance of conservation practices placed on Iowa’s landscape and to bring attention to the ongoing work by farmers, landowners and urban residents to protect the state’s soil and water resources. On Wednesday, May 3, a field day and ribbon cutting for a number of urban water quality projects in Rockwell City will be held. The projects undertaken by the city will capture storm water and utilize innovative methods to remove contaminants and improve the quality of the runoff prior to its discharge into the storm sewer system. That event will begin at 9 a.m. with a tour at Featherstone Park and will also include a ribbon cutting for the downtown square improvement project at 11:30 a.m. Thursday, Gov. Branstad and Iowa Secretary of Agriculture, Bill Northey, plan to visit a farm in the Big Creek watershed near Madrid, where four saturated buffers were installed last fall and a bioreactor and oxbow restoration project will be built later this year.
