Wetlands Reserve Program Creates "200-acre Bird Feeder" on Iowa Farm

Duane Messerich looks over one of several restored wetlands on his property in rural Donahue. With help from the Iowa Natural Resources Conservation Service, he has transformed about 250 of his 280 acres into a habitat for wildlife. Image by Tracy Dunn.

DONAHUE - A series of indentations across the ice indicates the presence of a deer when the surface of the pond wasn't quite as frozen as it is this day.

On a nearby island, a hunter's duck blind is listing to the right, the victim of beavers whose underground den caused its collapse. The wood duck houses are vacant now, but come spring, waterfowl will populate the area.

Everywhere on the Messerich property northwest of Donahue, there are signs of wildlife. And that's the way Duane Messerich wants it.

The winner of the 2004 Wildlife Enhancement Award, Messerich has about 250 of his 280 acres in the Conservation Reserve and Wetlands Reserve programs.

"I always wanted to be a farmer, I just never quite made it," he muses. Three years after the floods of 1993 left him with swampland in place of farmland, Messerich became one of the first farmers to enroll in the Wetlands Reserve Program. He set aside 72 acres as a permanent easement to restore wetlands and wildlife habitat.

With Mud Creek running through the property and the Wapsi River about a quarter of a mile away, Messerich says it floods about twice a year.

"If we don't get drowned out, the soil is so sandy, we get burned out," he says. He and his neighbor share 22 acres of cropland, but the rest is planted with a different kind of "crop."

Native grasses and 19 acres of trees (4,000 trees per acre) help provide shelter and food for the wildlife that has returned to the area. Messerich says he's the first farmer in eastern Iowa to have hosted classes for tree planting, inviting state foresters to demonstrate to conservation groups the proper way to plant trees from seed. His first trees are now over 15 feet tall.

Bob Sheets of the Department of Natural Resources helped him design the first of his wetland areas, excavating and building a 700-foot dike. Small islands dot the area (frozen now), and Messerich says the territorial geese fight over them to nest each year.

"We get to enjoy this year-round," says Messerich. "But it's really exciting in the spring when the ducks come back." To encourage them to stay and nest, he has built wood duck houses and goose nests.

"Build it and they'll come," he says with a laugh.

They've definitely come to what Messerich calls his "200-acre bird feeder." Working full time at Electric Refrigeration in Davenport, he says taking care of his land and the preserves he has built is his "therapy."

Messerich is deservedly proud as he gives a visitor the "grand tour," courtesy of a four-wheel-drive truck, but he is quick to say that conservation is something that he's done since he was a kid, hunting and fishing near Goose Lake, Iowa.

The land he's protecting has served as farm fields, but now is home to waterfowl, beavers, otters, deer and more.

 "We put it back to what it's meant for - raising wildlife," he says.

Story by Tracy Dunn, The North Scott Press.