Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig announced June 30 the expansion of the Streamside Buffer Pilot Project to include farmers and landowners living in all 22 counties in the Greater Des Moines Watershed. Greene County is one of those counties.
The expansion is part of the Greater Des Moines Watershed Program, a targeted initiative to accelerate and scale up the use of conservation practices in counties upstream from the Des Moines metro to improve water quality. Funding for the project expansion is provided by the Farm to Faucet water quality package signed into law on June 1.
The Streamside Buffer Pilot Project was launched in August 2025 to help farmers and landowners establish perennial buffers along streams, rivers, creeks, and drainage ditches to reduce nutrient runoff and soil erosion and improve water quality. The pilot initially focused on the North Raccoon, Boone, Middle Cedar and Turkey River watersheds and all of Dubuque County.
Through this expansion, farmers and landowners living within the Greater Des Moines watershed are invited to enroll. Those 22 counties include Audubon, Boone, Buena Vista, Calhoun, Carroll, Clay, Dallas, Dickinson, Emmet, Greene, Guthrie, Hamilton, Hancock, Humboldt, Kossuth, Palo Alto, Pocahontas, Polk, Sac, Webster, Winnebago, and Wright. Farmers and landowners in the Middle Cedar and Turkey River watersheds and Dubuque County are still eligible to participate.
Streamside buffers help filter nutrients from runoff before they enter streams and rivers, reduce soil erosion, improve wildlife habitat, and support broader water quality goals. They also complement other conservation practices, including bioreactors and saturated buffers, helping farmers and landowners maximize water quality benefits across the landscape. In many cases, qualifying buffers can also be harvested for forage, creating an additional benefit for livestock producers while helping reduce nutrient losses and improve water quality. “Clean water is non-negotiable, and improving water quality requires action both upstream and downstream,” said Secretary Naig. “Farmers continue to step up by implementing proven conservation practices on their farms, and streamside buffers are another way to keep soil and nutrients on the land and out of our waterways. Layering vegetative streamside buffers with practices like bioreactors and saturated buffers can significantly reduce nitrates in runoff before it reaches the stream, improving water quality while also creating forage opportunities for livestock producers and habitat for wildlife. That’s the kind of working lands conservation approach that benefits both agriculture and water quality, and one that we will continue to build on as we scale up conservation efforts across Iowa.”
