Latest news with #IowaDepartmentofNaturalResources
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
Iowa DNR shares river safety tips
DES MOINES, Iowa — The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has important safety tips for Iowans looking to spend time on Iowa's waterways. Todd Robertson, a river programs water trails coordinator for the Iowa DNR, said that the number one thing Iowans need when on the river is a life jacket. 'It goes down to the very basic number one, which is wearing the life jacket, the life jacket's made for a reason. It does a certain thing for you, and that is it keeps your head above water. It keeps you buoyant, because if you dump your boat in a river with all the current and you don't have your life jacket on, it is so easy to get pulled down underneath the water,' Robertson said. Republican Senators who forced pipeline vote say fight for landowner rights is not over The DNR also recommends that Iowans avoid going on the river after heavy rain. 'You just can't go start paddling on a river the day after a super heavy rain. And the reason for that is because all the debris washes in from the banks and you get wood piled on top of wood. And we call those strainers and those are really deadly,' Robertson said. Robertson said that strainers can flip boats and trap paddlers. 'So you just have a big mess of wood. The only problem with that is it's like a spaghetti strainer. The water is going through the strainer and it's sucking the water through. But if you get your boat and your body up against that, you can slip and you can actually get sucked underneath that. And if that happens, that's real bad news,' Robertson said. To learn more about river safety, visit the Iowa DNR's website. Iowa News: Iowa DNR shares river safety tips Republican Senators who forced pipeline vote say fight for landowner rights is not over Body of missing fisherman recovered from Three Mile Lake in Union County WHO 13 Farm Report: Wednesday, June 18th Small town, big heart, big canvas: Iowa community to unveil new mural Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Yahoo
Iowa DNR reporting fish kill at Des Moines lake
DES MOINES, Iowa — The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) said it's investigating a fish kill at a Des Moines lake. On Tuesday afternoon the DNR announced that it received reports last week of dead fish being seen in Dean Lake, located on the southeast side of Des Moines. The DNR also said that dark-colored water and a strong, septic smell were being reported at the lake. Increase in ATV/UTV popularity brings more crashes on roads Dean Lake drains into multiple stormwater basins between East Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway and Maury Street before flowing into the Des Moines River. The DNR said that fish in the basins are now showing signs of stress, and while dead fish are expected to eventually appear in the basins, the fish kill event is not expected to affect fish or other aquatic life in the river. The DNR advises the public to avoid the affected areas. An investigation into the fish kill is ongoing. Metro News: 'ICE Out' protest brings in hundreds in Des Moines Iowa DNR reporting fish kill at Des Moines lake Vehicle crashes into southside Des Moines home Local impact of corporate sponsors pulling funding for Pride month At least 1 person injured in Des Moines apartment fire early Tuesday Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Wild Turtle Week offers education, ideas to protect Iowa's native species
Blanding's turtle is a threatened species in Iowa. (Photo courtesy of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources) Iowa is home to 13 wild turtle species, nearly all of which are in need of conservation action, or are endangered due to a loss of habitat and road-related mortalities, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Iowans can learn about these turtles and how to help conserve the aquatic and semi-aquatic reptiles during Wild Turtle Week, June 9-13. The eastern spiny softshell turtle, which is found throughout Iowa and the central portion of the country, lives mostly in the water and utilizes a method of absorbing oxygen through their skin and throat that is sometimes called 'butt breathing' according to Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation, or PARC. Per their name, the turtles do not have a hard shell and rely on their speed for protection. PARC suggests leaving these long-necked and snouted turtles alone if spotted out of the water, as they might be laying eggs. Snapping turtles are also easily recognizable by their long spiny tails, shells and big, sharp beaks. Certain species of snapping turtle are listed as threatened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service which identified habitat loss, commercial and recreational fishing and nest predation as factors contributing to the population decline. Wood turtles and yellow mud turtles are both listed as endangered in Iowa due to habitat loss and water pollution. Ornate box turtles, and eastern musk turtles are listed as threatened, along with the Blanding's turtle. DNR partnered with Blank Park Zoo and Iowa State University to raise and release nearly 60 Blanding's turtles back into the Iowa landscape. The group released the turtles into the wild June 4. According to U.S. FWS, these turtles can live for up to 70 years and often travel great distances, which exposes them to dangerous road crossings. The western painted turtle, found across the state, is known for its bright red, yellow and black colored undersides. This small turtle, along with the red-eared slider, are two turtles that DNR said are not in need of conservation action. Iowans can help turtles by avoiding them in roadways, and when possible, stopping to help move them across the roads. DNR said to always move turtles the same direction they were headed when helping them across a street. It's also important to never pick up a turtle by its tail, as this can damage the reptile's spine. A press release from DNR said wetland, grassland and forest preservation can also help to save turtle habitat in Iowa. Iowans with a keen eye for turtle identification can submit their observations online to Reptiles and Amphibians of Iowa, which charts species populations across the state. The website also has valuable photos and information to help identify turtle varieties. PARC encourages folks across country to celebrate wild turtle week by sharing their turtle photos on social media with #ShellebrateTurtles. The organization also has webinars and other online resources with lots of turtle facts. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
An osprey was found in the road. It turned out to be a 19-year-old who repopulated Iowa.
Two local bird watchers in West Des Moines rescued an osprey after they found the bird sitting in the middle of Army Post Road in late April. The individuals were able to help the osprey avoid traffic while they waited for Iowa Bird Rehabilitation to come help the bird. The raptor species typically has a 6-foot wingspan and can dive into bodies of water moving as fast as 40 mph, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. This female osprey was found with a band on each leg. When Iowa Bird Rehabilitation looked up the information on one of the bands, they learned it was a 19-year-old osprey who has helped bring back the raptor's population in Iowa. This is an unusually old age for ospreys, said Jenni Boonjakuakul, the founder and executive director of Iowa Bird Rehabilitation. The bird species typically live to be 10-12 years old. Considering ospreys migrate to South America for the winter, Boonjakuakul said it is amazing for one to make it to 19 years old. "So to be 19, it is a significantly older bird," Boonjakuakul said. The bands on the bird's legs were also clues to its history in Iowa. One band, labeled "Y8," told rescuers that the raptor was part of an osprey reintroduction program in Iowa that fran from 2005 to 2011. The female bird came to Iowa from northern Minnesota in 2006 as a 42-day-old bird. "She was banded, and that's the only reason she knew who she was and how old she was," Boonjakuakul said. "Banding is really important for us as we do our conservation work." The conservation program allowed Ospreys to be raised in a hack tower, which is a tower where the birds can live while learning how to eat and build their flying strength. It also protects the ospreys from other predators as they grow to eventually leave and live on their own. The fact that the Y8 osprey still returns to Iowa is a testament to the success of the re-introduction program, Boonjakuakul said. "Those programs are working," Boonjakuakul said. "Birds are surviving. They are reproducing young and they're building our population here in Iowa." It is unclear how the Osprey ended up on the road. When it was taken in for evaluation, no broken bones were found. It is a possibility she ran into a power line and had a concussion, said Boonjakuakul. Given the bird's age Boonjakuakul contacted Saving Our Avian Resources, which specializes in birds of prey, for assistance. "It's just kind of an odd presentation of injuries," Boonjakuakul said. "So we really don't know for sure what happened to her." SOAR took her into rehabilitation, where the osprey spent more than a month building her strength, said Kay Neumann, the executive director. Neumann thinks the Osprey may have experienced some deep bruising and possibly a cracked shoulder blade. "It took her a while to decide that she felt all right to start flying in one of our big flight pens," Neumann said. "So definitely not a hangnail." After some time and care, the two organizations returned the osprey to her home in West Des Moines. This isn't the first time this wise, old osprey has returned to Iowa. Her return to Iowa was recorded around 2009, just three years after her release from the reintroduction program. She has likely returned to the same nesting spot every year since. Most of the offspring in the area likely come from this 19-year-old Y8 Osprey, Boonjakuakul said. The Y8 Osprey's mate was also seen as recently as late May. Ospreys mate for life, so Boonjakuakul is hopeful the two raptors will reunite. "It's fascinating and really promising that all the work and effort that a lot of people did 10-20 years ago is working," Boonjakuakul Kate Kealey is a general assignment reporter for the Register. Reach her at kkealey@ or follow her on Twitter at @Kkealey17. This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Rare 19-year-old osprey returns to West Des Moines after being rescued
Nahar Net
04-06-2025
- Climate
- Nahar Net
Canadian wildfire smoke causes 'very unhealthy' conditions in American Midwest
Smoke from Canadian wildfires carried another day of poor air quality south of the border to the Midwest, where conditions in parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan were rated "very unhealthy" Tuesday. The fires have forced more than 27,000 Canadians in three provinces to flee their homes, and the smoke has even reached Europe. The smell of smoke hung over the Minneapolis-St. Paul area on Tuesday morning despite rain that obscured the full measure of the dirty air. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency issued an alert for almost the entire state into Wednesday, but the Twin Cities area got the worst of it in the Midwest on Tuesday. "As the smoke continues to move across the state Tuesday, air quality will slowly improve from northwest to southeast for the remainder of the alert area," the agency said. "The smoke is expected to leave the state by Wednesday at noon." The Iowa Department of Natural Resources warned that air quality in a band from the state's southwest corner to the northeast could fall into the unhealthy category through Thursday morning. The agency recommended that people, especially those with heart and lung disease, avoid long or intense activities and to take extra breaks while doing strenuous actions outdoors. Smoky conditions that have reached the U.S. periodically in recent weeks extended as far east Tuesday as Michigan, west into the Dakotas and Nebraska, and as far to the southeast as Georgia. Conditions at ground level are unhealthy The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's AirNow map showed a swath of red for "unhealthy" conditions across the eastern half Minnesota into western Wisconsin and northern Iowa. The map also showed purple for "very unhealthy" across much of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, where the Air Quality Index numbers of 250 and were common, though conditions started to improve slightly by late morning. The Air Quality Index — AQI — measures how clean or polluted the air is, focusing on health effects that might be experienced within a few hours or days after breathing polluted air. It is based on ground-level ozone, particle pollution, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. Particulates are the main issue from the fires The index ranges from green, where the air quality is satisfactory and air pollution poses little or no risk, to maroon, which is considered hazardous. That level comes with health warnings of emergency conditions where everyone is more likely to be affected, according to AirNow. While Minnesota officials warned on Monday that conditions in the northwest part of the state could reach the maroon category on Tuesday, conditions there were generally yellow, or moderate. There were a few scattered locations in the Twin Cities area that temporarily hit maroon on Tuesday morning. But by midday Tuesday, most of the remaining maroon spots in the region were on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Hospitals are seeing more patients with respiratory symptoms Hennepin Healthcare, the main emergency hospital in Minneapolis, has seen a slight increase in visits by patients with respiratory symptoms aggravated by the dirty air. Dr. Rachel Strykowski, a pulmonologist, said there is usually a bit of a delay before patients come in, which is unfortunate because the sooner those patients contact their doctors, the better the outcome. Typical symptoms, she said, include "increase in shortness of breath, wheezing, maybe coughing a bit more, and flares of their underlying disease, and that's usually COPD and asthma." What happens, Strykowski said, is that the fine particulate matter from the wildfire smoke triggers more inflammation in patients' airways, aggravating their underlying medical conditions. Strykowski noted that this is usually a time those patients can go outside and enjoy the summer weather because there are fewer triggers, so the current ones forcing them to stay inside can feel "quite isolating." People can protect themselves by staying indoors or by wearing N95 masks, she said. Strykowski added that they must be N95s because the cloth masks many people used during the COVID-19 pandemic don't provide enough filtration. The Canadian fire situation Canada is having another bad wildfire season, and more than 27,000 people in three provinces have been forced to evacuate. Most of the smoke reaching the American Midwest has been coming from fires northwest of the provincial capital of Winnipeg in Manitoba. Winnipeg hotels opened Monday to evacuees. More than 17,000 Manitoba residents have been displaced since last week, including 5,000 residents of the community of Flin Flon, nearly 400 miles (645 kilometers) northwest of Winnipeg. In neighboring Saskatchewan, 2,500 residents of the town of La Ronge were ordered to flee Monday, on top of more than 8,000 in the province who had been evacuated earlier. In Saskatoon, where the premiers of Canada's provinces and the country's prime minister met Monday, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said all of Canada has come together to help the Prairie provinces. Two people were killed by a wildfire in mid-May in Lac du Bonnet, northeast of Winnipeg. Canada's worst-ever wildfire season was in 2023. It choked much of North America with dangerous smoke for months. The smoke reaches Europe Canada's wildfires are so large and intense that the smoke is even reaching Europe, where it is causing hazy skies but isn't expected to affect surface-air quality, according the European climate service Copernicus. The first high-altitude plume reached Greece and the eastern Mediterranean just over two weeks ago, with a much larger plume crossing the Atlantic within the past week and more expected in coming days, according to Copernicus. "That's really an indicator of how intense these fires are, that they can deliver smoke," high enough that they can be carried so far on jet streams, said Mark Parrington, senior scientist at the service. The fires also are putting out significant levels of carbon pollution — an estimated 56 megatons through Monday, second only to 2023, according to Copernicus.
