Spent the last week at the farm spending time with family, building our team, and taking some overdue meetings.
My favorite meeting was with the county conservation board who came out to the farm to help plan our creek restoration project.💧
In the 1950s my Great Grandpa Alfred straightened our creek and Uncle John told me he always regretted it.
Like many of these streams in Iowa, there has been significant erosion and stream bank degradation over the years - we’ve lost a lot of soil.
A couple years ago, we decided it was time to take steps to protect the soil and water by restoring the first section of Buckeye Creek.
Last year, a class from Drake University came out to take water samples, check for fish, and macro invertebrates so we could establish a “before” picture.
We are remeandering the channel, raising the bed, slowing the flow, resloping the banks, and planting a native buffer with plants that Dr. Rosburg says were here pre-settlement.
This fall, once permits are complete, we are starting reconstruction.
Uncle John once caught a 1.5lb bullhead in here. Dad caught many fish in here as a kid, and Hudson caught his first fish in this creek in 2016, and Evelyn got a pheasant with me there last winter. 🎣
Looking forward to many more Lahns catching fish here.