I love the outdoors in our hidden gem, the Upper Midwest; it’s a one-of-a-kind place. Sure, we trick all those unsuspecting victims driving through on I-80 into thinking that Iowa is just a series of undulating and rolling corn fields that go on forever. But that’s ok; it keeps our beautiful state uncrowded and the perfect place to raise a family and enjoy life.
I mean, whatever you do, don’t tell them visitors that places like this exist if they bothered to take a peak just a little ways off the beaten path.
Our beautiful Iowa has plenty of outdoor recreation and public land to satisfy the wander lust of the most adventurous among us. I should know, I’ve spent a lifetime here doing exactly that. Sure, I visit the popular spots that everyone else does, places like Pikes Peak, Yellow Banks, Backbone, Jester Park, and everything in between.
But, I also do much more that that. Most people are unaware, or maybe aware but not interested enough to know that Iowa boasts a massive list of Public Lands that Wildlife Management Areas that could keep you busy and intrigued the rest of your life.
Hiking, hunting, exploring, fishing, wildlife viewing all wait at your finger tips, in the very county you live in no doubt. But, there is something rotting at the core, something that probably explains why many of these Public Lands go unused and untouched, a waste.
I’ve written before about how …
and the problem is only getting worse, not better.
The more I spent time on our Public Lands, walking and exploring that meandering Des Moines River and other forgotten haunts, the more I see why Iowa Public Lands are an embarrassment to us natives. You can literally see the degradation happening before your eyes, it’s impossible to miss.
Case and point.
I spend much of the summer walking or paddling the Des Moines River and surrounding water ways, simply fishing or enjoying the plethora of bald eagles that patrol our blue skies. I spend days with my children biking the myriad of trail systems that dot our central plains.
You know what never changes and get’s worse every year? Disrepair and trash. Piles of trash, mounds of trash, incredible amount of trash.
This picture was taken only a few days ago.
This picture was taken a few days before that, heading out into the woods to enjoy some nature along the river.
Maddening is it not? It’s been like this for years.
You know what else is maddening? This year when taking my children fishing to Big Creek State Park, where …
- the playground is broken and been in disrepair for years
- trash abounds everywhere
- more than half the buildings and bathrooms are broken and shutdown
… and, where I observed the DNR personal driving around in a BRAND NEW massive white Ram Heavy Duty 3500 dually pickup truck. This is a $100,000 dollar machine.
Yes, instead of fixing the playground for the children, picking up trash, fixing some of the bathrooms, no, what I get when I go fishing with my children is a dilapidated and broken bathroom that is closed, piles of trash everywhere, and a DNR who want’s to check my fishing license while I stand next to piles of used trash.
It’s the same everywhere I go. Angry Conservation and DNR employees who are jaded so badly that they have stopped caring decades ago. They don’t bother even trying. It’s pathetic, and it shows.
Before you tell me it’s not their fault …
I’m a realist, and I happen to have grown up in era where we were taught that people are capable of amazing things, especially those who believe in something … nothing can stop them.
Each and every DNR and Conservation worker can either decide to make it their mission to make their park(s) beautiful and assessable to the public, somewhere they would be proud to take their own family … or not.
It’s pretty clear what choice they have made. I’m not interested in some opinion of an “armchair” reader of Iowa Outdoors or Our Iowa who’s never actually gotten off their couch, left Des Moines, and actually went and put their feet in the water or boots in the mud of the trails. It’s bad. It’s getting worse.
People complain about “not enough funding,” that everyone and all those billion of agriculture dollars are against us and our Public Lands. Well, that sounds like a nice sound byte, but this problem is a clear and obvious lack of caring about our public lands by those charged with keep things lands for our public good. This is decades in the making.
They have enough money to buy new trucks, but they can’t be bother about piles of trash? Shame on them.
