11th International Drainage Symposium August 30-September 2, 2022 Des Moines, Iowa

1. Implementation of Edge-of-FIeld
Practices in the South Fork
Watershed in Central Iowa:
Perspectives from a Farmer
Jacob Bolson
Beaver Creek Food & Fibre
Hubbard, Iowa ⁃ September 01, 2022

2. Intro & thank you

3. Watershed of the South Fork of the Iowa River

4. Today’s touchpoints
➔ My conservation journey
➔ My learnings
➔ Future directions

5. Audience poll
➔ Industry
➔ Academia
➔ Farmers
➔ Government agencies (NRCS,
EPA, etc.)
➔ Other

6. My conservation journey

7. 2006: studying controlled traffic & strip-intercropping

8. 2015: building grass waterways

9. 2018: building blind inlets, filter socks & saturated buffers

10. 2022: building woodchip bio-reactors

11. My learnings

12. Cut the C.R.A.P
“Corporate Rhetoric And
Pomposity”
-Beth Nyland Opportunities
Simplify: the process is
too hard
Don’t forget the basics
Go faster
Handling the financials
Cut the red tape

13. Does it work?
Research somewhere else ≠
localized acceptance
Opportunities
Clarify the messaging
Learn from seed
industry
Ease of quantifying
locally

14. It’s time for difficult
conversations
“Tell the truth, or at least
don’t lie.”
-Jordan Peterson
Opportunities
Clean drinking water
“Think downstream”
Tile water is not clean

15. Future directions

16. INRS
“Scale up”
-Mike Naig
Opportunities
Influencing others in the
midst of degrading
economic conditions

17. I want more.
Wetland restoration,
oxbows, streambank
stabilization, & drainage
water recycling.
Opportunities
Wait in line.

18. Thank you
Jacob & Lindsay Bolson
Beaver Creek Food & Fibre
Hubbard, Iowa
563-379-2337
jmbolson@gmail.com