ADVANCING BIODIVERSITY IN EASTERN IOWA

Local AmeriCorps crews care for rare habitat to celebrate 30 years of national service

Conservation crews with a mission to “get things done” helped restore some of Iowa’s rarest habitat in honor of decades of service across the country.

More than 30 Iowa members of the national service program AmeriCorps, along with staff and local program partners, gathered Friday, Sept. 13 at Big Sand Mound Nature Preserve just south of Muscatine to use their conservation skills in the sand prairie.

Members from Bur Oak Land Trust and AmeriCorps National Civilian Conservation Corps (NCCC) North Central Region cut out invasive...

The Bugs Around Us

This story originally appeared in the Spring/Summer 2024 issue of Bur Oak Notes, a bi-annual magazine for Bur Oak supporters.

Here’s the thing, Jeff Klahn likes insects. Beetles, especially.

As a lifelong biologist, professor and now lecturer emeritus at the University of Iowa, Klahn has been studying these often-overlooked creatures and surveyed Bur Oak Land Trust preserves to find them.

“We have two questions here,” he said, “there is diversity – the number of species...

Putting in the Hours

Nearly two decades ago in 2006, Don Bolin jumped feet first into volunteer service at Bur Oak Land Trust, known then as Johnson County Heritage Trust, to get back into nature, relax and make some real change in local conservation.

“Within two months of joining [the land trust], I found myself with 40 acres of woodland on my hands and on the board of [directors],” he said, “so, it was kind of a fast start.”

Bolin was used to being immersed in his work. A self-described “compulsive” medical doctor...