Iowa public trust resource for sale

[Ben Nicholson]

...the other side did not want any more land purchased whatsoever.

That side sure sounds a lot like the Farm Bureau...

 

[Pucky Freak]

@trackerbacker Here is another link to the Iowa Water and Land Legacy website that has several handouts with information on it. https://www.iowaswaterandlandlegacy.org/resources/ I haven't been able to find the breakdown of how the fund will be used, but I will continue to look for it. The breakdown is crucial, it was voted on in 2010. Most people who are currently opposed to IWLL are not in favor of it because they see how much money it is going to generate and they would like to get their piece of the pie. IWLL very well could have gotten signed last year but the major nonstarter on both sides was acquiring public land by County Conservation Boards and the Iowa DNR with one side being in favor of the ability to purchase land at appraised value from willing sellers and the other side did not want any more land purchased whatsoever.

I mistakenly believed the Republican governor favored local governance. It turns out federal, county, and city control are all opposed in favor of concentrating power at the state level. CCB’s are the bogeymen who add more public lands in their counties…better stamp that out. God forbid a private landowner sells or donates a small parcel for conservation.

 

[Gellar]

I mistakenly believed the Republican governor favored local governance. It turns out federal, county, and city control are all opposed in favor of concentrating power at the state level. CCB’s are the bogeymen who add more public lands in their counties…better stamp that out. God forbid a private landowner sells or donates a small parcel for conservation.

One of our outspoken local opposition tries to claim that when the DNR or the County buys more land they are taking possible land away from future and beginning farmers that they could buy or rent to farm. I always call BS and I always think to myself " Are you trying to set that future farmer up for failure?" The land the DNR and the CCB's buy should not be farmed, it is usually to steep, to wet, to prone to floods, etc to make a profit on it and if you suggest a beginning farmer should buy it to farm that is just setting them up for failure.

 

[Pucky Freak]

Farm Bureau would prefer marginal row crop acres move to pasture, so member dues are not lost, and that is fair. But they oppose public acquisition of any land, even if it has no ag value, such as lowlands and bluffs. I think they are scared that if non-productive lands change hands it greases the wheels for marginal land transfers. Easier to just have a blanket NO position.