Kevin’s Corner – May 2026
Hello Nishnabotna Water Defenders!
It’s been quite a month for us here on the Board of Directors and I say that because we find ourselves at an inflection point.
We are, at our core, the defenders or the Nishnabotna watershed. As such, we look around at where the danger lies and it’s hard to know where to start.
I want to try and condense a very complicated situation into a couple of truths:
In his inaugural speech at the 2023 Iowa Nature Summit, founder Neil Hamilton articulated the fact, “Nature is not a Luxury”. Nature is not about swimming at the lake on a hot summer day, or going for a walk on a cold winter morning.
Nature is about the foundations of life.
So when we fight for nature, it’s not about “nature lovers”. It’s about the basic elements of everything we have always taken for granted here in Iowa. It’s about clean water, it’s about good, deep, healthy soil that allows for the growth of good healthy food. It’s about biodiversity in our woodlands, our grasslands, and our soil.
When we have those things, we have not only the building blocks for a good life, but also a healthy life.
So here we are.
The Nishnabotna Water Defenders filed a lawsuit in March in regards to a massive fertilizer spill that killed “everything” for over fifty miles in our river. That was the focus of our first year. That spill and the State’s reaction has brought into stark clarity where we stand in relation to nature.
Chris Jones, an Iowa scientist, writer and former University of Iowa Research Engineer, has this to say about our current situation:
“Iowa’s water crisis is systemic”.
Nitrate pollution, Phosphorus runoff, sediment loss and recurring fish kills are all symptoms of an interconnected system of industrialized crop production, concentrated livestock production and weak regulations.
Between ongoing efforts to drain water off the surface of the soil, and the reality of modern chemical based agriculture along with massive amounts of animal manure, we struggle to find clean drinking water, let alone a place to swim on a hot summer day that isn’t restricted or endangered in some way.
When we look around at where we might begin to reverse some of these issues we keep coming back to “Regenerative Agriculture.”
Very simply, Regenerative Farming asks the question: How do we make the land function more like a living ecosystem again while still producing food? The dream is to regenerate not only the land, but the farmers themselves along with our communities.
Chris Jones wants to slow down the water moving across the land.
Neil Hamilton reminds us that Iowans have forgotten it’s relationship with nature. Water is at the center of the equation.
Our focus then at Nishnabotna Water Defenders is to stand at the intersection between the land and the water with an army of citizen scientists that test the water for nitrates and note our findings on the Clean Water Hub as part of the Nitrate Watch. (See the link above.)
We are doing this as part of our Re-Fish the Nish! program. As a member, when you adopt a mile of the Nishnabotna River and sign up with Nitrate watch through our website, (those are
three separate things.) you become a very important link to the next piece of our Nishnabotna Watershed Defense plan:
Affecting policy.
It has become obvious that our problems were generated by state and national policy and they must be corrected by state and national policy.
Recent negotiations on the national farm bill have shown that politicians listen to their constituents when they speak with a sustained unified voice.
This is where our true strength lies. We are asking you, as a member of the NWD to write or call your representatives at least once a month and let them know you are communicating as a member of the NWD.
That’s a big job. It can be a lot of work. I’m not very good at it either. Maybe I’ll keep score on myself and let you know how I did every month.
We will attempt to help by informing you about hot topics and suggested talking points on our website.
Finally; it’s easy to get discouraged.
The regenerative agriculture movement is a slow moving process, at least for now. Policy is a mess; actually more of a fist fight.
We have had a number of conversations here on the NWD board about engineering some sort of “moonshot” action that can have an immediate effect. Maybe you can give us some ideas.
Perhaps the fact is: We are the Moonshot.
Moonshots come about by incredible focus and effort over an extended period of time, and then suddenly: liftoff!
And we are not alone. We are part of a much larger movement that is waking up and going to work.
We are the defenders of our watershed. Our river was born of patience and resilience and her defenders must be as well.
Kevin,
Questions and comments are always encouraged