Danny Wilcox Frazier
Paddlers skim along the water to the sound of gulls. Small waves splash against driftwood and the banks of the Des Moines River. A flotilla of experienced kayakers, canoers who built their own boats and infrequent recreators expands and contracts, making its way downstream.
On and off the water, the conversations are the same — Iowans talk about an Iowa that doesn’t exist anymore.
Older kayakers lament how they grew up seeing small farms all across the state. Young families express fear for the future of the state’s water, once a place to recreate and fish, now a source of pain and frustration for rural communities and metro areas alike…