The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Iowa State University have introduced updates to Iowa’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy (INRS), the state’s soil health and water quality framework. The goal of the INRS is to assess and reduce nutrients in surface water through conservation and land management practices.
The updates reflect new research, practices, partnerships and funding that have emerged since the strategy was finalized in 2013. It was last revised in 2017, according to a news release.
“We appreciate the hard work of communities and industries across the state who made critical upgrades that led to significant reduction of nitrogen and phosphorus entering Iowa’s waterways,” Kayla Lyon, director of the Iowa DNR, said in a prepared statement. “These advancements reflect the dedication of local governments, engineers, and environmental partners to implement innovative technologies and practices that benefit our water systems and the broader health of our environment and communities. While there is still much to do, the strides we’ve made so far are a testament to what we can accomplish when we work together.”
Conservation practices will continue to be deployed in watersheds identified in the original INRS, the release said. The updated document outlines new implementation strategies that aim to maximize funding and impact and accelerate practice adoption.
Iowa State students, faculty and staff will continue to contribute to the INRS “by generating relevant new water quality research, developing new technologies to support INRS implementation and studying the performance of existing conservation practices,” said Daniel J. Robison, endowed dean’s chair of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, in a prepared statement.
The revised strategy is available here. To learn more about the updates to the strategy and new implementation practices, click here.