Should farmers be required to plant buffers along the state's waterways?

A group of conservation board members from throughout Iowa is pushing for a new Iowa law which would require farmers to have 30-foot buffers along rivers and streams and creeks and lakes in the state.

The Conservation District of Iowa annual convention has approved a measure calling for an end to planting crops right up to the edge of a stream.  The group represents all 99 of Iowa's Soil and Water Conservation District boards.  One board member at the convention told a reporter, "You can, in Iowa, farm right up to an edge of a stream.  There's nothing to stop you except good sense and a concern for water quality."

Winneshiek County SWCD board president John Lubke says using stream buffers is "common sense."  Lubke has enrolled six acres of his farm in the Turkey River Watershed program.  He says such a system makes sure that valuable topsoil doesn't leave a farm.  "We can't keep doing this," he says about practices that result in topsoil erosion.

Nevertheless, Lubke understands the plight of farmers who want to do the right thing but are also stressed financially.  He says financial incentives may be necessary to change practices.  Otherwise, farmers will be losing money because they are doing the right thing.

Winneshiek County farmers will sign up at the local FSA office in December to put some of their land in the CRP.