Book Review - The Guide to Iowa\u27s State Preserves

The Iowa State Preserves System gives the highest protection afforded by law to sites dedicated for maintenance as nearly as possible in [their] natural condition. To date, ninety sites have been dedicated as biological, geological, archaeological, scenic, or historic preserves, declaring that such use is the site\u27s highest, best, and most important use for the public benefit (State Preserves Act of 1965). In a state as dramatically altered as Iowa, such remnants are of intense interest to professional and amateur naturalists of all inclinations, as well as to anyone who appreciates nature. Yet understanding the basic qualities of these preserve sites is not always easy. Even finding them has sometimes been difficult-at least it was until publication of The Guide to Iowa\u27s State Preserves, released late in 2001 by the University of Iowa Press

Introduction to the 1997 Symposium on Iowa\u27s Declining Flora and Fauna

In 1980, Iowa\u27s biologists and ecologists gathered at the 92nd annual meeting of the Iowa Academy of Science to present a symposium on the state\u27s declining flora and fauna. Papers were published a year later in a single issue of The Proceedings of The Iowa Academy of Science (Vol. 88, No. 1), which has since been widely cited and much used as a baseline for research efforts. The symposium was a noble undertaking, for although the highly altered composition of Iowa\u27s presettlement ecology had been widely recognized throughout the previous century, no single publication or gathering to that date had attempted to deal with the multiple facets of declining numbers and diversity of the state\u27s natural ecosystems and native species since Euroamerican settlement

Book Review: Places of Quiet Beauty: Parks, Preserves, and Environmentalism

Places of Quiet Beauty: Parks, Preserves, and Environmentalism. Rebecca Conard. 1997. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City, Iowa. XV + 382 pages. ISBN 0-87745-558-9. Well administered, parks become much more than havens for birds and flowers, much more than game-preserves, a refuge for life of every sort; even more than a play-ground for all the people ... [The well administered park] shall show us real democracy. So began one of Iowa\u27s preeminent natural historians, Thomas Macbride, in an early-20th-century (1922) address on the status of Iowa\u27s parks. And so Rebecca Conard begins her late-20th-century analysis of the development of Iowa\u27s parks and preserves. Macbride\u27s quote reflects the multiplicity of expectations that were placed upon parks - for wild species, humans, and society. Conard traces this complex story out in its fullness, outlining the ongoing attempts to balance the pressures for various recreational uses of public lands with the need to conserve natural features and resources

Climate Change Impacts on Iowa, 2010

Climate change is already affecting the way Iowans live and work. Without action to mitigate these effects, our future responses will become more complex and costly . The following policy recommendations are offered as initial steps to help safeguard our state’s economy, environment, and residents