#611 Club Bulletin, June 27, 2016

Club News and Happy News:  Guests today included: Ashley Lemmon, Lauren and Julie Kundel, Isabella Alvarado and Lori Ash, her mom, and Natalie Noll. Lauren, Isabella and Natalie are all attending RYLA this summer.  Charla Schafer was present and was announced as a second time reading for her as a new member.  Mary

reminded Rotarians to sign up to help with the 4th of July Parade as Block Captains. She also announced that the Rotary Board would be meeting today!!  Judi Holdorf is celebrating her 45th wedding anniversary on Sunday!! Marv Krieger reminded us to conserve water as we brush our teeth thanks to a story he told about Mike Ruby at an interstate reststop!!

 

Program: Jim Stein introduced Josh Spies from the Nature Conservancy.  They are the largest nongovernmental organization to protect land as land stewards.  Josh said there are a million members with 120 million acres being protected across the United States. Grasslands are disappearing, soil is eroding, water quality is not sufficient and we have unnatural flooding!!  The Nature Conservancy seeks to use scientific nonconfrontational methods to address problem areas. 

 

Iowa still has only 25% of our original native forest and 5% of the wetlands.  The Cedar River Basin consists of 40,000 acres that are protected included are recreational areas, as well as, habitats for wildlife and amphibians.  54 of the 64 Iowa amphibian types are found here.

 

The Nature Conservancy is funded mostly by private donations.