The Iowa Conservation Education Coalition welcomed former ICEC chair Richard Leopold to Camp Io-Dis-E-Ca near Solon, Iowa, for the ICEC winter conference this weekend. Leopold is the director of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

Before his keynote address at the conference on Friday night, he talked with the Iowa Independent about some state environmental issues, including water quality and deer management.

Below the fold, two videos with the Iowa DNR chief.Leopold, who said he is related only “in spirit” to the famous ecologist Aldo Leopold, talked about water quality. He said “Water quality is always a big issue, it ties into so many different things,” He explained that some livestock lots can be traced to fish kills because of poor management of manure and improper siting and placement of lots.

Leopold was also concerned about expiring Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) contracts. CRP is a federal program designed to protect environmentally sensitive areas, like stream buffers, grass waterways and hillsides. The program pays farmers not to plant crops in these spaces to limit soil erosion and runoff. He said recent corn prices are tempting farmers to bring those acres back into production.

Leopold talked about the number of bills before the Iowa Legislature pertaining to deer. He said he hoped that deer controls would be left to the DNR and biologists who can have a more “dynamic” response to deer population.

In this video he talks about deer management:

Wildlife photo by Rene Paine.