The Iowa Learning Farm’s Conservation Station is a big, blue trailer serving as a mobile learning center to encourage all Iowans to help protect and improve soil and water quality. Through demonstrations, pictures, computer animations, three dimensional interactive displays, video and sound, people of all ages can learn why Iowa’s water and soils are so precious and how they can help preserve and protect these natural resources.
Visitors can see the Conservation Station for free at field days, county fairs, farmers’ markets and student educational outings throughout Iowa and can learn about soil, water, crop residue, prairies and wetlands. It also has a rainfall simulator, which demonstrates the effects of rainfall on the land and provides information about collecting surface water runoff and subsurface drainage.
Iowa Learning Farm is a partnership between the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Iowa State University Extension, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Iowa Natural Resources Conservation Service and Iowa Department of Natural Resources in cooperation with Conservation Districts of Iowa and the Iowa Farm Bureau. The Conservation Station will be at many events this summer and fall. Visit the Iowa Learning Farm Web site often for a listing of events. More events are added regularly at www.extension.iastate.edu/ilf. To request the Conservation Station for an event, call (515) 294-5429 or e-mail ilf@iastate.edu.