Dallas County Soil and Water Conservation District

05/04/2026

04/22/2026

🌎✨ Happy from the Dallas County Soil and Water Conservation District! ✨🌱
This years Earth Day theme, "Our Power, Our Planet," is a powerful reminder that each of us play a role in protecting and preserving the natural resources we all depend on. here in Dallas County, that message is at the heart of everything we do.
At the SWCD, we believe that conservation starts at the local level, with our farmers, landowners, and community members. Through sustainable practices, responsible land management, and everyday choices, we all have the power to make a lasting impact on the health of our soil, water, and wildlife.
Did you know w offer cost share programs to help support conservation efforts? Whether you're interested in improving soil health, protecting our waterways, or enhancing wildlife habitat, we are here to help make those goals more accessible and achievable.

This Earth Day, let's celebrate the power we have together to care for our planet, right here at home.🌿💧
📱📞 Reach out to learn more about our programs and how you can get involved in conservation efforts in Dallas County!

04/22/2026

🌎🌱💧Happy Earth Day! Yesterday, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig spoke at the Legacy Woods Nature Sanctuary groundbreaking in West Des Moines. He thanked the partners involved in the project, including the Great Outdoors Foundation, the City of West Des Moines - Government, Polk County Iowa, Microsoft, and local donors, and highlighted progress since last year. It’s exciting to see the vision taking shape — bioretention cells are completed and a stormwater wetland and other conservation practices are underway. The project is part of a statewide, collaborative effort to improve water quality in urban and rural areas.

04/22/2026

🌳 Arbor Day Proclamation – April 24, 2026 🌳

The City of Adel hereby designates April 24, 2026 as Arbor Day in Adel, Iowa!

We encourage all residents to celebrate by planting trees and supporting efforts to maintain and grow our community’s urban forest. Together, we can help keep Adel green, healthy, and beautiful for years to come. 🌱🌿

04/22/2026

Happy Earth Day!
Don't forget, CDI Contest Posters are due May 1st!

04/22/2026

Women, Land & Legacy is opening a Central Iowa chapter in Polk county and Dallas county, and we are looking for members who are interested in or passionate about agriculture and conservation.

WLL fosters support and opportunities using a bottoms-up approach that prioritizes women's voices!

Our goal is to kick off our first Planning Session in May, and we have a seat at the table with your name on it. If you're ready to get involved in conservation, head over to polkswcdiowa.gov/WLL to get on the contact list. We will be reaching out to coordinate a date for our first planning session.

03/26/2026

This is literally who you are saying no to when you choose bare soil over cover crops in the winter. She's literally just a girl 🥺

03/24/2026

Check out some great field day opportunities coming up!

Flowers, feathers, and flames! 🌸🐦🔥 We've got a fun and educational weekend coming up this Friday through Sunday. Visit our Eventbrite link in the comments to learn more about each of these free programs and to register.

03/24/2026

American lawns cover 40 million acres. That is more land than corn. More land than wheat. More land than any single food crop grown anywhere in this country. And it produces nothing.
Not nothing as in "not very much." Nothing as in: no food, no carbon sequestration, no groundwater recharge, no wildlife habitat, no pollinator forage, no flood mitigation. A monoculture of Kentucky bluegrass maintained at 3 inches — the suburban standard — supports fewer insect species than a parking lot. At least a parking lot doesn't demand 800 gallons of water per household per week and a weekly fossil fuel combustion event to keep it aesthetically uniform.
The aerial photograph shows the math with brutal clarity. Left side: a riding mower tracing perfect lines across an endless green carpet. Right side: the same acreage exploding with purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta), butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa), and native switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) — alive with monarch butterflies, American goldfinches, bumblebees, and native sweat bees. Same square footage. Completely different ecological reality.
Here is the number that reframes everything: if American homeowners converted just 10% of their lawn area to native plantings, the resulting connected habitat would cover 4 million acres — larger than every U.S. National Park combined except Alaska's. Not a national park built by Congress and funded by federal appropriations. A national park built one yard at a time, by individuals making a different choice about what their property is for.
The biological mechanism is Dr. Doug Tallamy's research made visible: native oak trees support 557 species of caterpillars. Ornamental ginkgo trees — the default suburban planting — support 5. Caterpillars are not a nuisance. They are the base of the food web. Ninety-six percent of North American terrestrial bird species require insects to feed their nestlings. No insects, no birds. The suburban landscape has been quietly starving songbirds for 70 years by replacing food-producing native plants with ornamental monocultures that look alive but function as ecological deserts.
The monarch butterfly population has declined 80% since 1990. The eastern meadowlark population has declined 75% since 1970. The rusty-patched bumblebee — once the most common bumblebee in the eastern U.S. — is now federally endangered. These are not coincidences. They are the measurable consequence of 40 million acres of ecological silence.
Your yard is not decoration. It is habitat. The question is only which species you decide to support with it.

03/24/2026

Trees and shrubs create critical habitat for birds and pollinators. Support conservation and shop the tree sale! 🌿