‘It’s about doing things that are good for the land’

Matt Cosgrove advocates for funding voter-approved Outdoor Recreation Trust

The Iowa Natural Resource & Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund has been in place since it was added to Iowa's Constitution in 2010.

It was established to provide over $200 million annually to improve soil and water quality, improve and increase outdoor recreation and help provide economic development.

The funding was to come through a three-eighths of a cent increase in the state sales tax.

That last part is the fly in the ointment.

There's no money in it. None. Zero. Zilch.

Why? That sales tax increase has never been enacted.

Webster County Conservation Director Matt Cosgrove spoke about efforts to fix that last part Saturday morning during a Coffee and Conservation session at the Matt Cosgrove River's Edge Discovery Center.

"Sixty-three percent of Iowans voted for this, it was enacted and it's Constitutionally protected," Cosgrove said. "Everybody that purchases anything, including our visitors, helps pay for it."

There's plenty of things that need doing.

"It's about doing things that are good for the land," he said. "We used to have lots of wetlands; now we have 18,000 miles of streams. If we're not the most altered state in the nation, then I don't know who is. We're now No. 2 in cancer and Des Moines is spending $16,000 a day to remove nitrates from their drinking water. Wouldn't it be better to invest that money upstream?"

The effects can be easily seen -- beach closed signs are common due to bacteria that thrive in the nutrient rich water.

"At Badger Lake it's a waste of time and money to test. We know it's going to come back bad," he said. "Now we try to get water off the land as quickly as possible. Keeping it on the land is the way to treat it."

Among the things the trust would help fund are wetland restorations and projects in concert with land owners to take marginal land out of production and instead use it as part of that filtration system. A restored prairie area would also help wildlife, in addition to filtering water.

"One-half of our grassland birds that used to be here are gone," he said. "That's a problem if we continue on that track."

So why has Iowa's legislature not passed the needed legislation to fund the trust?

"Our legislature likes to pit conservation against agriculture," he said. "They're pretty much the same. We're both trying to accomplish the same thing. It's not city versus rural. This is good for everybody."

Cosgrove understands the difficult position farmers are in.

"This is not a farm problem; this is an Iowa problem," he said. "You can't blame someone when you have to use every square inch to grow crops to make your payments."

He understands the fear.

"They're afraid it's a land grab," he said. "It's not."

Part of the history with the funding is the changes COVID brought. While that period massively increased outdoor recreation, it also changed legislative priorities.

The sales tax increase would be permanent, and it's not going to anything not already in place.

"It's not an annual budget argument," Cosgrove said. "It (the money) flows through existing channels into existing programs that have been backlogged for years."

So how can the public help?

"Talk to your legislator," he said. "We need to get a bill out there that they can support."

He said there are many economic benefits, employment benefits, quality of life improvements and even health care savings to be gained by helping to improve Iowa's environmental health.

Cosgrove said that Iowans continue to support the legislature enacting the needed funding bills.

"People want this," he said. "People want more parks and access to wildlife areas."

He said that people can also support the trust through several different organizations, including: www.fundthetrust.org, the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation and Iowa's Water and Land Legacy (IWiLL).