The Raccoon River from the Bill Riley Trail in Des Moines on Dec. 28, 2024. (Photo by Cami Koons/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig announced Monday the state agriculture department has initiated a pilot project that will pay farmers to implement buffer strips along streams that feed the municipal water supplies of Des Moines and Cedar Rapids.
The buffer strips must be between 30 to 100 feet wide and on land that is currently in row-crop production. According to a press release on the announcement, the buffer strips are intended to prevent nutrients from entering the waterways upstream of the cities…