Conservation Partners Help Boeck Fix ‘Ugly Mess’
Nearly two decades after purchasing what
he calls “an ugly mess,” Bob Boeck of ru-
ral Black Hawk County is fi nally getting his
money’s worth. With assistance from three
conservation partners–the USDA’s Natural
Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Pheas-
ants Forever–Boeck has 80 acres of priceless
wildlife habitat.
Boeck, a semi-retired lieutenant with Water-
loo Fire Rescue, purchased 80 acres of poorly
managed Conservation Reserve Program
(CRP) land in 1991 as a potential acreage site.
Just two months after he bought the land, how-
ever, he received a registered complaint from a
neighbor about the weed problem.
As a result, he decided an extreme makeover
was in order. Boeck disked most of the 80-acre
prairie and dried up wetland and, with cost-
share assistance from Pheasants Forever, re-
seeded it to native prairie grasses. “[Pheasants
Forever] came through for me in a big way,”
said Boeck. He re-seeded with fi ve tallgrass
prairie grasses, which included Big Bluestem,
Little Bluestem, Indian Grass, switchgrass and
Sideoats Grama.
Following the heavy rains and fl ooding of
1993, Boeck fi nally had surface water on a
portion of the land. So in 1995, Boeck placed
33 acres into a permanent easement through
the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP), which
is administered by the NRCS. Boeck received
fi nancial assistance to restore, protect and
enhance the 33-acre wetland area in exchange
for retiring this marginal land from future
agricultural use. Participants in WRP retain
private ownership of the land, but voluntarily
sell a conservation easement to NRCS that
limits future development on the land. NRCS
works with landowners, through technical and
fi nancial assistance, to restore wetland habitat.
Boeck said it was the right time to place the
33 acres in WRP. “I followed my own advice
to not look to tomorrow or yesterday. If it fi ts
your need now, and you qualify and the num-
bers are okay, s