Iowa used to be 80 percent prairie in the early 1800s. “We are blaming corn and soybeans, but not farmers. She believes modern crop production and farm policy are the leading reasons behind flooding problems. Laura Jackson, a biology professor at the University of Northern Iowa, co-authored Chapter 24 detailing how perennial farming systems can resist flooding. The book contains 25 chapters written by different experts – all with past or present ties to the state – ranging from hydrology and conservation to economics and public works. A recurring theme is a change in the state’s landscape. “A Watershed Year” provides a comprehensive look at the cause and effect of flooding statewide. But if you look at major flooding, it’s more Mother Nature’s whims, not how subsurface drainage impacts it,” said Tim Recker, a farmer and land contractor from rural Arlington. “I won’t deny there’s been a change in agriculture from the 1940s. Drainage tile is needed to make it more productive and absorb water. Producers say they are good stewards of the land. Farmers say Iowa has some of the richest soils in the world and the ground is needed to food, which big bluestem and butterfly milkweed that used to dominate the landscape won’t do. People that depend on the land for a living have a different view. “People need to understand their actions have consequences and affects the environment.” “The public needs to understand what’s going on,” Mutel said. Mutel said the change from water-absorbing prairies to intensive crop production and tiled farmland is one of the main reasons behind intense floods. Subsequently, a 100-year flood, like what happened in many areas in 1993, has a 1 in 100 chance of taking place.Ĭornelia Mutel, editor of “A Watershed Year” is an ecologist at the University of Iowa. According to the book, grain production is a primary reason.Įxperts said the 2008 catastrophe, which caused billions of dollars in property damage and threatened to submerge downtown Cedar Falls, was called a 500-year flood because it had a 1 in 500 chance of occurring in any year, or. “A Watershed Year: Anatomy of the Iowa Floods of 2008,” in part, looks at the state’s history to explain why severe flooding is occurring more frequently. With local rivers and streams just returning to their banks this year, conditions – saturated ground and a thick snow cover that recently melted – are ripe for another hydrologic disaster.Ī book released earlier this month by University of Iowa Press explores the dynamics of the flood two years ago. The Cedar River and other Northeast Iowa waterways inundated residential neighborhoods and farm fields in historic fashion in 20. Draining problem: Book ties row crops to flooding problemsĬEDAR FALLS – Major floods statistically have little chance of occurring in the Cedar Valley.
0 kommentar(er)
