Middle Cedar Watershed group briefs Benton County on grants, coordinator hire and projects
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Summary
Representatives from the Middle Cedar Watershed Management Authority updated the board on federal and state grants, a new farmer-to-farmer grant, planned listening sessions for small-scale growers across ten counties, and the planned hiring of a watershed coordinator funded in part by local contributions.
Marybeth Stevenson, chair of the Middle Cedar Watershed Management Authority, thanked Benton County for its FY26 contribution and outlined projects funded with that support. She described a federal "growing resilience" farmer-to-farmer grant and said the WMA will hire a watershed coordinator to manage outreach and programming once funding arrives.
Stevenson and Alyssa Comer described planned listening sessions and field days targeted to small-scale and beginning growers, noting past work in Black Hawk County showed such sessions help non-row-crop producers access USDA and NRCS resources. "We're gonna be doing field days with farmers... oxbow restoration projects, and other water-quality improvement projects," Stevenson said.
Paula Trujillo, a Soil and Water Conservation District staff member partnering on the project, explained the three-year technical assistance program will conduct listening sessions across the Bridal Cedar watershed and produce a final report for Iowa DNR and USDA that documents growers’ needs and priorities. The board thanked presenters and indicated it will consider another contribution during FY27 budget planning.
