Greene County conservation director Dan Towers received official notification last week that the county has received a $229,250 grant from the Iowa Department of Natural Resource’s Habitat Stamp grant program. The grant is the large portion of funding for the purchase of 160 acres of timber along the North Raccoon River in Section 30 of Washington Township, southwest of Rippey.
The Habitat Stamp grant program will provide up to 75 percent of the cost of projects to develop wildlife habitat. A requirement is that the land be open to public use, including hunting.
The property is part of the estate of the late Ruth Hanson. According to Towers, Hanson’s son Tom approached him about the county purchasing the property. “We’re grateful to him for his patience as we looked for funding when he could have sold it for more on the open market,” Towers said.
Hanson still owns another 130 acres of adjacent timber, and there is potential for that to be sold to the county as well.
Total cost of the land acquisition is $344,300. The funding package included $41,600 from Mid American Energy as habitat mitigation, $30,000 from the National Heritage Foundation, $30,000 from the county’s state-funded REAP (Resource Enhancement and Protection) fund, $10,000 from the National Wild Turkey Federation and $3,450 from local groups.
“This acquisition is important because it’s become increasingly difficult for the average sportsman to find a place to hunt or pursue other outdoor activities,” Towers said. “Most timber is now owned or leased for hunting interests. Iowa ranks 49th of the 50 states in the number of acres in public ownership. Every acre we can secure is insurance that future generations will have an opportunity to pursue outdoor recreation.”
The parcel is one of the biggest blocks of timber along the North Raccoon corridor, according to Towers. The ground will not be available for the spring turkey season as final details are taken care of.
Towers finds personal satisfaction in seeing the parcel available for public hunting. It was the site of the DNR’s first turkey release in 1981, a project Towers was part of as a DNR employees. He helped net the turkeys in southern Iowa and he personally released them in Washington Township. The wild turkeys there now are descendants of those first 10 hens and three toms.
