The Spring 2025 Watershed Academy was focused on water quality monitoring, manure management, and organizing an effective field day.
Full agenda: spring_2025_watershed_academy_agenda.pdf
Day 1 of the Watershed Academy began with a presentation from Jennifer Kurth, Natural Resource Biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Jen presented on publicly available online tools that can be used to assess water quality in the state. Here is a link to her presentation: watershed_academy_kurth.pptx Some of the resources she referenced were:
- How's My Waterway (EPA): https://www.epa.gov/waterdata/hows-my-waterway
- ADBNet - Iowa's Water Quality Assessment Database (Iowa DNR): https://programs.iowadnr.gov/adbnet/
- AQuIA - Physical and chemical parameters at Iowa rivers, lakes, wetlands, and groundwater locations throughout the state (Iowa DNR): https://programs.iowadnr.gov/aquia/
- BioNet - Iowa DNR Biological Monitoring and Assessment Database (Iowa DNR): https://programs.iowadnr.gov/bionet/
- Iowa Water Quality Information System - Real-time water-quality data and information such as nitrate, pH, and dissolved oxygen concentrations, discharge rates, and temperature (IIHR—Hydroscience & Engineering and United States Geological Survey): https://iwqis.iowawis.org/
- Izaak Walton League Clean Water Hub: https://www.cleanwaterhub.org/
- Izaak Walton League Save our Stream Initiative: https://iwla.org/monitor-local-water/
After lunch we transitioned to our water quality monitoring panel with Tony Seeman (Water Lab Service Manager with Iowa Soybean Association), Amanda Brown (Water Ecologist with Polk County Conservation) and Josh Balk (Watershed and Source Water Coordinator with the Iowa DNR). We discussed how to start a water monitoring program, organizing volunteers, and sharing your findings with stakeholders.
The day concluded with a presentation from Jeff Prier (Senior Environmental Specialist with Iowa DNR) and Dan Anderson (Associate Professor at Iowa State University) on manure management. Jeff's presentation can be found here: watershed_academy_afo_overview.pptx. Dan's presentation can be found here: manurevalue.pptx.
Day 2 included a presentation from Liz Ripley (Conservation and Cover Crop Outreach Specialist with Iowa Learning Farms-Iowa State Extension) on effective field days, presentations and handouts. Liz's presentation can be found here: effectivefielddayspresentationshandouts_250123.pdf
We concluded the day with a presentation from Ruth McCabe, Conservation Manager with Heartland Co-op. Ruth discussed her lesssons learned from her 2022 Nuffield Scholarship that allowed her to travel around the world and learn about conservation adoption. Ruth's presentation can be found here: 2025-05-07_mccabe_spring_wa.pdf
