Today’s mission? Eradicate autumn olive trees overrunning restored prairie and wetland in Scott County.
A platoon of volunteers and staff from the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation arms up with pruning shears, Sawzalls, and herbicide daubers to attack the woody, half-inch thick trunks inundating the preserve.
Tracey Kuehl and family donated the hilly land and pond that once was the center of their 240-acre family farming operation. They deeded the homestead and surrounding property to the foundation, which pledges to maintain it for native habitat forever.
The Iowa Heritage Foundation has protected 190,000 acres in partnership with Iowans who seek to create natural habitat refuges from corn and beans operations that displace wildlife and native vegetation.
Kuehl grew up on the farm long before Interstate 80 drew a line between it and Bettendorf.
From her porch, Kuehl can see the towering Iron Golf facility going up next to the sprawling TBK Sports complex.
“We knew development was coming, so we started to plan,” she said.
One day, homes and businesses will sprawl north of I-80. But forever, the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation will preserve the pond, prairies and trees on her family’s homestead.
“It’s our gift, I guess, a legacy,” Kuehl said
It’s a gift that requires a lot of work.
Today’s mission attacks autumn olives, an invasive introduced to Iowa 40 years ago under the advice of Extension Service experts proven wrong by time.
Kuehl has childhood memories of planting the saplings that were recommended to stabilize land against erosion and provide cover for small birds and mammals.
Turns out the autumn olives overwhelm other plants and would one day overrun the property.
Kuehl recruited family and friends, including Andrew Dixon, of Bettendorf, and Eric Levetzow, of Dixon. Both work at Habitat for Humanity’s Restore, where Kuehl volunteers.
“So this is payback,” Levetzow said.
The foundation’s Eastern Iowa Land Stewardship director Bill Kohler and communication specialist Erica Place are nearby, doing the same thing.
Destiny Magee, a foundation stewardship assistant, whacks away at the stemmy trunks.
Everyone is sweating and swatting gnats, a testament to their commitment, or, as Magee said, obsession.
Magee earned a masters in ecology from the University of Northern Iowa. Since then, she’s been an Americorps conservation crew chief, Iowa DNR maintenance worker and U.S. Geological Survey research assistant.
There’s no other place she’d rather be.
“I like to be outdoors and take care of Iowa’s natural places. There aren’t many left,” she said.
Foundation staff visit Kuehl two or three time a year to check on the property, and plan more projects.
They always welcome volunteers to help, and reach out to property owners like Kuehl interested in creating their own legacies.
Learn more online at inhf.org, or contact the Des Moines office at 515-288-1846.
The Foundation has seven similar workdays scheduled across the state this year.