Outdoor News Daily

Through a new partnership between the Natural Heritage Trust (NHT) and the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), the public can now support forest conservation and enhancement by donating to DEC’s Tree Planting Fund through NHT, DEC announced today. Donations will help the State Tree Nursery at Saratoga continue to provide free and reduced cost seedlings to the Trees for Tribs Program and the School Seedling program, among other environmental purposes.

“Planting trees is one of the most effective ways to protect and improve water and air quality, mitigate flooding and erosion, reduce cooling and heating energy needs, increase property values, and improve quality of life for people and wildlife around them,” DEC Commissioner Joe Martens said.
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Hydrologists with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Iowa DNR fisheries biologists are working to improve fish overwintering conditions in Mud Lake and Zollicoffer Slough, two historic overwintering areas near Dubuque.

The lake and surrounding floodplain were submerged when Lock and Dam 11 was completed in the late 1930s and the increased connectivity with the main channel introduced current which did away with the backwater overwintering site. A habitat rehabilitation and enhancement project (HREP) was completed there in 2006 to restore the backwater areas providing fish a refuge away from river channels.
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