(Spirit Lake)– The Dickinson County Board of Supervisors Tuesday voted to renew the county’s involvement in the Iowa Roadside Vegetation Management Program. Tanner Bouchard of the Dickinson County Conservation Board oversees the program…
“Every five years in order for us to be able to apply for the grant that is provided from the state, the Living Trust Fund Grant, they require for you to have an up to date IRVM plan on file. This year was the year where ours went out of date so this is our new one. It’s a lot bigger than our old one just because our program has changed so much. The requirements are that you add to what your program currently does and keep it up to date so that the state can view it and help basically grade their grants on that.”
The program had somewhat of a rocky start with adjoining landowners when it was first implemented in Dickinson county, but Bouchard says that’s changing thanks to improved communications and education…
“You know it was a give and take relationship, me just understanding where their concerns were and them understanding what my concerns were and then working together to try to find something. And I think a lot of that is shown in this new plan is kind of that if something does need to change it can, but, you know, we’re not going to give up everything for a huge change when it’s not beneficial to our community and our watershed.”
A resolution adopted by the supervisors Tuesday says the program is intended to help control noxious weeds through planting native vegetation while also helping improve wildlife habitat. The program is a joint venture between the Dickinson County Conservation Board and the county’s Secondary Roads Department.
