Iowa
From dirt poor to common ground – Iowa Capital Dispatch
I was raised on Dust Bowl stories.
My grandmother told stories of growing up in Chandler, Oklahoma, until her family was displaced to the fruit plantations of California, where her father became a Baptist tent preacher, famous for his apocalyptic sermons that he delivered under the shade of orange trees.
In her diary, Grandma Velma describes Dust Bowl economics in personal stories of sneaking off with her brother, Oral, to smoke hand-rolled cigarettes while wearing shoes patched with cardboard.
Every Christmas, Grandma packed oranges into our stockings, one for each of her nine children, several dozen grandchildren, and at least half a dozen “took ins.”
A good orange is hard to find in North Dakota. But every winter I seek one out because oranges are heirlooms of my grandmother’s survival.
Grandma’s Dust Bowl stories have been returning to me this winter, where I work for the Walsh County Three Rivers Soil Conservation District in northeastern North Dakota.
The stories have me reconsidering the definition of “dirt poor.”
Merriam-Webster notes that “dirt-poor” came into common use in 1937. Although the term means “suffering extreme poverty,” I contend that it can better serve us as a question: what happens to a farming and ranching community when it becomes “dirt poor,” with depleted and impoverished soil?
Perhaps it is only coincidence that 1937 was also the year that the first soil conservation district was established with the Brown Creek Soil and Water Conservation District in North Carolina. The district where I work was established in 1938.
In “A Sand County Almanac” (1949), Aldo Leopold wrote that soil districts were “a beautiful piece of social machinery.” But he warned that we had only fulfilled half of our original obligation, explaining that SCDs were not merely to provide cost-share funding, education and outreach, and on-the-ground support. Crucially, SCDs were also implemented to establish local rules for land-use that would be enforceable by law.
As Leopold observed:
When one asks why no rules have been written, one is told that the community is not yet ready to support them; education must precede rules. But the education actually in progress makes no mention of obligations to land over and above those dictated by self-interest. The net result is that we have more education but less soil, fewer healthy woods, and as many floods as in 1937.
As a former professor, I believe strongly in the power of education. But as a conservationist, I believe even more strongly in the power of a community to work toward common ground solutions.
The first step is recognizing that the public has the power to change the story we are currently writing on the land. Soil health is not a private matter. Like water, soil must be protected and preserved for the common good.
Without enforceable soil health ordinances, this winter has seen yet another year where topsoil has filled up our ditches, drifted into mounds in fields, and smeared along our roadways.
In the absence of enforceable ordinances, countless fields bear the marks of freshly installed drain tile: ground pocked by the iron tracks of excavators; trenches dug for thousands of feet of perforated tubes; a pump station, much like a basement sump pump, peeking above ground at the edge of the field, its below-ground system plunged 10 to 15 feet into the earth.
Drain tile is an industrial solution to a host of filtration problems caused by the abuses of industrial agriculture. Designed to pump excess water from soggy and flooded fields that often lack cover crops or living roots, drain tile promises the industrial farmer several nifty conveniences: shortening the time it takes to drain oversaturated ground and increasing the capacity for tillable acres through the chance to drain wetlands.
The cost of this convenience is difficult to measure, and we cannot afford to measure it in economic terms alone. The prevalence of drain tile in the Red River Valley is producing much more than a trickle: millions of gallons of water have been pumped from fields sprayed with fertilizer and pesticides into ditches, which flow into tributaries, which flow into the Red River, crossing state boundaries between Minnesota and North Dakota before flowing north into Canada.
The prevalence of drain tile in the Red River Valley offers another way of understanding trickle-down economics. The origins of this trickle-down theory can be traced to the 1890s, when “horse-and-sparrow” economics took hold, with the belief that by overfeeding oats to a horse, a few lucky sparrows would benefit from the expelled excess.
Our work here in Walsh County seeks to reverse this logic, where we collaborate with farmers, ranchers, and conservation organizations to come up with comprehensive solutions to complex problems related to soil health, water quality, habitat restoration, human nutrition, and rural community development.
Charismatic species, such as the mallard duck, western meadowlark, and sharp-tailed grouse, are our ambassadors in this effort. Or, as our partner the ND Meadowlark Initiative teaches us: what is good for the meadowlark is also good for working ranchland.
Moreover, cropland can benefit from implementing full-season, multispecies cover crops that can rest highly erodible soil, sequester carbon, provide seasonal habitat for nesting birds and pollinating insects, offer grasslands for grazing in partnership with local ranchers, and begin to reverse the losses in topsoil and microbial activity crucial to soil health.
If you would like to learn more about our efforts, tune in to our podcast “Common Ground: A Prairie Podcast,” also available on Spotify. We received a generous grant from the ND Natural Resources Trust that has enabled us to travel across North Dakota to interview a range of guests, including Pulitzer Prize winning journalists, award-winning artists, folks from The Land Institute, Audubon Great Plains, Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, North American Grouse Partnership, Ducks Unlimited, North Dakota Meadowlark Initiative, the United Prairie Foundation, and local farmers and ranchers.
Our podcast recognizes the prairie as a literal common ground with deep roots and an abundance of species. Although the prairie’s most enduring lesson might be patience, we also recognize this is a time of urgency: only 20% of prairies remain in the U.S., and of those, over 90% are unprotected by law.
With the college football season right around the corner, the Iowa State Cyclones will be hoping to have a strong campaign with a new regime coming in. However, a lot of their success might depend on one key player.
Following the departure of Matt Campbell to the Penn State Nittany Lions, the Cyclones saw their roster get completely gutted. Most of their players entered the transfer portal, leaving new head coach Jimmy Rogers with plenty of work to do.
Fortunately, Rogers and the coaching staff were able to get out there and bring in a lot of new players from all over the country. While Iowa State might be lacking star power and aren’t going to be as talented as they were last year, they do have a good amount of depth.
There should be quite a bit of competition for spots in camp, but there are some players who should clearly be starters that transferred in.
Pete Nakos of On3 recently predicted who would be the starting quarterback for every team in the Big 12. Unsurprisingly for the Cyclones, it was Jaylen Raynor who was the choice.
Raynor an Easy Pick
After bringing in the three-year starter from the Arkansas State Red Wolves, Raynor instantly became the favorite to be the starter for the Cyclones in Week 1. Him being predicted as that guy should come as no surprise, and his ability to play against elevated competition on a weekly basis will be key.
There is a lot to like about Raynor’s game, and he could certainly help Iowa State exceed expectations next year.
Last season with the Red Wolves, he totaled 3,361 passing yards, 19 passing touchdowns, and a 66.5 completion percentage. It was career-highs for him in all three of those categories, showing some nice improvement in his junior season.
As a dual-threat player, he also totaled a career-high in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns. The junior recorded 423 yards on the ground to go along with seven rushing scores.
Overall, the numbers for Raynor were really solid, and there is reason to believe he might be even better in his senior season. For the Cyclones, with all of the new players on the roster, there will undoubtedly be some competition for starting spots around the field. However, it should certainly be Raynor who is under center to start.
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CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – Syringes from injectable weight loss medications are turning up in drug drop-off boxes across eastern Iowa, creating a safety hazard for law enforcement officers who handle the containers.
Sgt. Erich Lear of the Linn County Sheriff’s Office said emptying the drug drop-off box is part of his daily routine — and the box fills fast.
“It’s probably a 30-gallon tote, and I’d say 3 out of the five days of the week it’s completely full,” Lear said.
Needles found mixed in with other medications
Lear said he has noticed over the past five years that people are placing medicine, nasal sprays and syringes in the bin. He said many of the syringes come from people discarding GLP-1 medications such as Ozempic and Wegovy.
“That tote that I pull out — there’s nothing that protects me from needles other than my observation and using gloves when I sort through things,” Lear said.
The Hiawatha Police Department said it is also seeing an increase in improperly discarded syringes.
Where syringes should go
The Cedar Rapids Linn County Solid Waste Agency is the proper disposal site for sharps. The agency said it has seen syringe intake increase by more than a ton in recent years.
“We’re talking about two thousand pounds of sharps and syringes coming in,” said Joe Horaney of the solid waste agency. “Before 2021 we were around 1.9, maybe 2 tons a year — now we are over 3 tons a year.”
Horaney said any Linn County resident can bring syringes to the facility, provided they are contained properly.
“We just ask that you have it in a heavy plastic container — so one of those medically certified red biohazard containers,” Horaney said. “If you don’t have that, it can be a heavy plastic container like an old laundry detergent [bottle].”
A third-party company picks up the sharps from the facility and incinerates them.
Some drop-off programs discontinued
Lear said another reason sharps are appearing at drop-off locations is that some agencies have ended their disposal programs. The Marion Police Department said it stopped offering the service after people continued to place broken glass, liquids and other garbage inside the box.
Copyright 2026 KCRG. All rights reserved.
While most of the focus for the Iowa State Cyclones will be on the football program for the next couple of months, the basketball program will also be getting set soon for a new campaign. Coming off a strong season, expectations for them will be high.
The 2025-26 season will go down as a memorable one for the Cyclones. This was a team that exceeded most expectations and ended up being one of the best teams in the country.
Iowa State started out the campaign with a 16-0 record, and the group looked like a real contender. While there were some hiccups during a challenging conference schedule, the Cyclones were one of the best teams in the country.
In March Madness, Iowa State was a number two seed, proving to be one of the top eight teams in the country. As they get set for next season, their goal will undoubtedly be to be ranked highly again. However, they may have to prove themselves a bit.
Joe Lunardi of ESPN recently updated his very early bracketology report for the upcoming 2026-27 campaign for the Cyclones. After being a number two seed last year in the NCAA Tournament, he currently has them on the five line.
Iowa State Has Work To Do
While being a five seed in the NCAA Tournament would indicate a Top 25 season for the Cyclones, expectations for the program are higher than that at this point.
Iowa State has become one of the more consistent programs in the country over the last several years, and they will undoubtedly want to take a step forward this coming season.
Due to a lot of production leaving, it is understandable that how they are viewed now could be very different from how they are perceived come March. Due to all of the new players that are coming in, it is going to take time for them to gel.
The Cyclones have a few key returning players led by Killyan Toure, Jamarion Batemon, and Blake Buchanan. Both Toure and Buchanan were starters for the team last season, and that should remain the same this year. However, Batemon also played a significant role coming off the bench, and his scoring ability might put him next to Toure in the starting lineup this coming year.
Overall, while the team did lose a lot of production, they have a good amount of depth with the new players coming in and some key freshmen returning. If things go right and the team gels quickly, they should be better than a five seed.
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