08/26/2026
Is the watershed alive?
What if we began thinking of our rivers, streams, wetlands, and lakes not simply as resources, but as living systems with their own needs?
Around the world, conversations about the rights of nature are challenging us to reconsider our relationship with the ecosystems that sustain us. It’s an interesting perspective—one that asks us to see ourselves as part of these systems rather than separate from them.
In Iowa, that relationship is especially important.
Our water quality is directly connected to the land around us. The same landscape that provides food, homes, businesses, recreation, and wildlife habitat also determines how water moves, what it carries, and what ultimately reaches our streams and rivers.
So what would happen if we started viewing conservation as something we participate in every day?
You don’t have to start big. Start where you are!
🌱 Grow habitat. Add native plants that support pollinators, birds, and healthy soils.
💧 Slow the water down. Consider rain gardens, native vegetation, buffers, or other practices that help rainfall soak into the ground instead of rapidly becoming runoff.
🌾 Protect the soil. Cover crops, reduced tillage, diverse rotations, perennial vegetation, and other conservation practices can help keep soil—and the nutrients attached to it—where they belong.
🏡 Look at your own landscape. Even a small yard, rental property, or apartment can provide habitat and help manage stormwater.
👀 Learn your watershed. Where does the water falling on your property go? What stream does it eventually reach? What lives there?
🤝 Support your neighbors. Conservation becomes much more powerful when individual actions add up across an entire watershed.
Maybe the first step is simply changing the way we look at the landscape.
Learn about the systems around you! Find one place where conservation can fit into your everyday life. Then build from there—from awareness, to action, to restoration.
What is one conservation action you could take this week?
Iowa State University Extension and Outreach-Mahaska County
We all can do something to improve Iowa’s water quality, even if you live in an apartment or have a tiny lawn. Every piece of land, no matter how small, is part of a watershed. That means that the efforts you make on your own property can have an impact on your neighbor and further downstream.
