INLA NEWSLETTER
July 2022
IN THIS ISSUE: 
  • Hold the date - Day of Service
  • Lone Tree REAP Grant Wildflower Planting
  • AmericanHort Labor Survey
  • Grant Funds Available
  • Survey Results
  • 2022-23 Membership Enrollment
Day of Service
Hold the date September 15 for the

2022 INLA Day of Service.

The project will take place at
Cedar Valley Arboretum in Waterloo.

More details to come!
Lone Tree REAP Grant Wildflower Planting
INLA Board Member Tyler Baird was involved in a REAP Grant wildflower planting project at Dougherty Park in Lone Tree last year. The results are beautiful!

From Tyler: "This was a portion of a project that received DNR REAP Grant funding and was completed last fall.
The planting will be native prairie in the long term but annual wildflowers were used as a cover crop. The poppies put on a good show a month ago and now the native Black-eyed Susan are blooming along with the non-native annuals.
Sustainable Landscape Solutions did the seeding work and brought forth the idea to use the annual flower mix in place of more traditional cover crops like winter wheat.
The blooms have really activated the park and brought in many visitors and passersby. This is a nice addition as a natural filter at the start of Prairie Creek which begins in Dougherty Park."
AmericanHort Labor Survey
From American Hort

AmericanHort has partnered with UC Davis and Arizona State University to conduct an industry-specific employment survey. This survey is the first of its kind and will provide us with data that we can rely on when sharing the impacts that the worsening labor shortage is having on our industry and which reforms we need to advocate for to provide some solutions to our growers.

Several of you have asked about the survey, and we would welcome you distributing it in your communications to members in your state who would be willing to participate. The survey shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes and will be open till Friday, August 19th. We plan to incorporate reminders in Capitol Wire and Impact Washington over the coming weeks.
Grant Funds Available for Communities Impacted by 2020 Derecho
From Iowa DNR

We are excited to share the derecho recovery grant program for communities that were impacted by the storm in 2020 is now available for fall 2022.

The Iowa Legislature has appropriated state infrastructure funds to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to be used for a community-based tree planting program for derecho recovery. A total of $250,000 in funds will be made available to local governments, schools, and service organizations in the 27 Iowa counties included in the Governor’s August 2020 Disaster Proclamation for planting trees.

In addition, the DNR has received $250,000 in funds through the USDA Forest Service & National Association of State Foresters (NASF) for Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) reforestation.

The Community Forestry Grant Program provides reimbursable grants ranging from $500 to $5,000 to be used for the purchase and planting of trees suitable to Iowa on publicly owned lands. For this round of grants, award recipients in counties impacted by both the August 10, 2020 derecho and Emerald Ash Borer will be awarded federal EAB Reforestation funds as a dollar-for-dollar match for state infrastructure derecho recovery funds. Award recipients will be reimbursed up to $5,000 of derecho recovery grant funds and $5,000 grant match funds.

Qualifying public planting lands include, but are not limited to, street right-of-ways, parks, school grounds, courthouse lawns, public buildings, fairgrounds, cemeteries, libraries and trails (DNR lands are not eligible).

The application and rules are available online at www.iowadnr.gov/urbanforestry. Entities may submit multiple proposals. Applications are due by 4 p.m. on Thursday, September 1, 2022.

For questions about reimbursement and rules, please contact Emma Hanigan – emma.hanigan@dnr.iowa.gov, 515-249-1732. For assistance with the application and site visits, please contact Janessa Hollmaier – janessa.hollmaier@dnr.iowa.gov, 319-826-0814.
Liquid and Dry Compost Survey Results
The results of the survey are in and we will share some of the results in the next few newsletters.

This month, the summary of results regarding Application Information:

  • 65% of online respondents apply mostly dry fertilizers and soil amendments. Only 1% reports applying most liquid, but 34% say they apply a combination of both.
  • Nearly all focus group participants apply dry fertilizers for the following reasons: concern from citizen constituents about any liquid inputs being chemical in nature; greater control of application rates; and lower reduce risk injury to turf, trees and ornamentals.
  • 81% of online respondents apply fertilizers and soil amendments with spreaders, 44% use sprayers and manual labor.
  • When asked about the possibility of reducing fertilizer applications by using more compost, nearly all focus group respondents commented that they are unlikely to do this because of the massive amount of compost that they'd need to apply and the lack of staff to apply it.
  • All focus group participants thought it was important to apply compost to planting areas for trees, shrubs and other ornamentals.
And also the summary of results regarding Trusted Information Sources that Impact Trial and Purchase

  • Top 3 trusted information sources for online respondents were within 1% of each other and include: #1 peer/colleague/employee (27%); #2 sales rep/supplier/marketer (26%); and #3 university/USDA research trials (25%)
  • Nearly all focus group participants commented on the importance AND lack of university and USDA research on compost and soil amendments. They say they need this information before making any changes to their agronomic programs.
  • Top 3 information sources to learn about new products for online respondents include: #1 sales/rep or agronomist (73%); #2 peers (66%); and #3 trade shows (60%).
2022-23 INLA Membership Enrollment
Please be looking for your 2022-23 membership renewal in the mail.

You may make your annual payment by sending a check in the mail or electronically at the link below.
Thank you for your membership enrollment!