Effort is required on your part to find a location where the maximum brightness and abundance of colors will be in full force. This author highly recommends any of the following public land sites are good places to start.

Number one: do make the effort to travel to Grammer Grove, a 121-acre area located southwest of Liscomb. The land borders the Iowa River and has both upland and bottomland forests. Mowed hiking pathways are established for easy walking.

Downstream one mile is the next area, The Forest Reserve, an 85-acre forested area that contains a mix of upland hardwood trees. This public area also has a boat ramp whereby your hiking shoes can explore the shallow water currents of the Iowa River. You will be able to observe leaf color from the river’s point of view.

Number three on my list is the Arney Bend Wildlife Area. There are 203 acres of bottomland forests intermixed with several ages old former meandering channels of the Iowa River, all dry now of course, but reminiscent of those past geological times when the Iowa River claimed

itself to any part of the floodplain it wanted to cut into. The present active river channel forms the southwest boundary of this forested area.

Next is a familiar area, Timmons Grove, both north and south segments, with the Iowa River bisecting the two elements. The area is all bottomland forested with hiking trails to entice the visitor into the back sides of each site.

Timmons Grove has 205 acres. South Timmons has a camping area with new toilet facilities just completed. The roadway to the boat ramp goes north as it parallels Highway 330. Canoe and kayak access is easily obtained at this river access.

Timmons (North) is open for public hunting and likewise is all bottomland forest. Many old river oxbows exist in this area, and most of the time they do not hold water — unless abundant rains have kept the soils saturated. Right now these old channels are dry.

At the next downstream site, the Iowa River Wildlife Area, 485 acres, that is easily found by driving northwest of Marshalltown to the Sand Road. Bottomland forests and upland forests exist here along with upland reconstructed prairie grass and wildflower fields.

Trails are provided here, some primarily as future fire control lanes if a prairie grass burn is needed in a future year. However, these trails are excellent access opportunities to meander at one’s leisure while observing leaf color or fall migrating birds.

This list of color leaf sight-seeing destinations could go on and on. So I’ll just leave you with other points of interest that meet all the criteria for colorful fall leaf colors great-get-aways: Grimes Farm, Sand Lake, Three Bridges, Green Castle, Klauenberg Prairie, Sand Prairie and the Heart of Iowa Nature Trail.

With a camera in hand and an observant eye, fall leaf colors will be there to greet you. Enjoy your immersion into autumn’s fall color show.

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A quick jaunt down memory lane helps tell the history of early conservation efforts to retain wild lands, wildlife habitats, and thus the wildlife that live in these spectacular places. One hundred and twenty five years ago, near the end of the 1800s and the beginning of the 1900s, the westward expansion and settlement activities exacted a toll on many wildlife species. During those times, there persisted an impression that wildlife abundances were inexhaustible.

We can’t blame settlers for wanting to eat. Wild turkeys, deer, elk, pronghorn, bison, ducks and geese and many others were considered fair game — groceries as needed by virtue of just going hunting for them.

There were early signs that the supply was and could become limited. Foresight by a few leaders of those days helped to shed light on the impacts settlement had on wild places and wild species.

The advance of railroads westward spurred cities to develop and a rush of people to go west to live. The plight of wildlife declines did register with leaders like Theodore Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot, and George Bird Grinnell.

They formed the Boone and Crockett Club and used that organization to help educate other leaders and legislators about the need for wildlife lands and wildlife takings regulations. Their initiatives eventually led to and culminated in the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation. These leaders were not magicians, but their work, now looked upon in hindsight, was close to magic.

A long line of actions began starting in 1900 with the Lacey Act, federal legislation sponsored by an Iowan, John Lacey. His draft bill, the Lacey Act, made it illegal as a federal law to transport illegally killed wildlife across state borders.

Between 1901 and 1909, President Theodore Roosevelt protected more than 230 million acres of lands and waters. The year 1911 marked legislation allowing the federal government to to buy land east of the Mississippi River for national forests. During 1914, the passenger pigeon was not able to be brought back from its pathway toward extinction, despite 50 years of attempts to curtain its demise. That experience taught everyone to not take any wildlife population for granted.

Again in 1926, a Canadian named Charles Gordon Hewitt signed the Migratory Bird Treaty to help protect feathered critters from egg and nest collectors, a hobby brought to the USA from Europe. In addition, the Migratory Bird Treaty set up regulated hunting goals that was soon

to be augmented by science based studies and careful management. Aldo Leopold entered the picture in 1933 with his published works and books on Game Management.

In 1937, federal legislation called the Pittman-Robertson Act (after the key sponsors of this bill in Congress), that placed a 10 percent excise tax on firearms and ammunition sales.

This funding stream was credited back to each state on a $3 federal to $1 state ratio based on license sales in each respective state. With secure funding, states in partnerships with federal agencies were able to apply more and more scientific studies and management strategies toward wildlife recovery programs.

And that is how the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation outline became a standard bearer that still holds true today. It states thus:

1. Natural Resources on public lands are managed to ensure the public will always have wildlife and wild places to enjoy.

2. Wildlife is ‘owned’ by the public, and it is illegal to sell the meat of any wild animal. In some cases the law allowed use of the hides, teeth, antlers or horns to be sold.

3. USA and/or Canadian citizens have the right to conserve and manage wildlife populations and lands via laws designed for conservation purposes.

4. Every citizen has the opportunity, under the law, to hunt and fish in the USA and Canada.

5. In North America, the taking of wildlife can be allowed under strict guidelines, to use the meat for food, to use the furs and to allow self defense of personal property.

6. Recognition is given to the fact that wildlife and fish may freely migrate across boundaries between states, provinces and countries. And lastly,

7. Science helps make good decisions so everyone participates to assist in becoming improved stewards of wildlife and wildlife habitats.

Numerous conservation success stories have come about because of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation. The work is always ongoing to try to figure out the best strategies, to know what works and what doesn’t, in a constant application of scientific principles.

During the next 125 years, we can hope and work for the ideal that our forefathers envisioned that guided them during their tenure. We trust that our legacies will add substantial credit to their work.

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Izaak Walton League members will meet on Wednesday, Oct. 11 at 6 p.m. Each October the theme for the evening is food, and in this case specifically, a friendly contest for the best chili. The Ikes have been doing a chili feed for 45 years! So, any and all Ikes members and guests are invited to attend, bring your best rendition of a crock pot full of chili, and we will see who gets the most votes.

There will be a prize awarded to the winner of the best chili contest. A covered dish of some type is also recommended for members attending, to ensure a wide variety of great foods.

President of the Ikes is Eric Briggs, a young and energetic individual. Any of the shooting sports are of interest to him, and he envisions a continued full use of the Ikes grounds for a variety of shotgun, rifle and archery use and occasional special events in the years to come.

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Garry Brandenburg is the retired director of the Marshall County Conservation Board. He is a graduate of Iowa State University with a BS degree in Fish & Wildlife Biology.

Contact him at:

P.O. Box 96 Albion, IA 50005

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