BRANDED CONTENT Water quality issues take many forms in Iowa, and more residents—including government representatives and business leaders—are taking notice. Behind the scenes, conservation groups like the Great Outdoors Foundation have been working with partners to implement successful conserva tion practices such as wetlands, cover crops, bioreactors, and saturated buffers. While these measures have been successful, they aren’t being implemented quickly enough—or on a large enough scale—to bring the change Iowa needs. “The challenge before us is no longer whether a solution exists,” says Hannah Inman, CEO of the Great Outdoors Foundation. “The challenge is whether we can deliver those solutions at the scale and the speed that this moment demands.” This challenge is the primary reason the Great Outdoors Foundation facilitated the two-day Athene Watershed26 conference held in Des Moines this summer. It brought together more than 250 attendees representing conservation, agribusiness, academic, NGO, and public sectors in the hopes of building partnerships that can successfully tackle the systems-based challenges associated with implementing conservation solutions. It’s also why they assembled a team of experts to create a Shared Action Plan, which Inman views not as a mandate, but as “a road map for action.” She says, “It’s a framework for moving further and faster together than any of us can do alone.”   The Shared Action Plan is organized around four pillars: Emerging Voices, Finance Solutions, Science Data, and Stacked Benefits. 1. Emerging Voices: This pillar seeks to bring newer voices into the conservation discussion and enlist them to spread the word about conservation successes. “If we want lasting change, we must invest in the next generation of conservation leaders,” Inman says. This pillar calls for new media trainings, educational resources, a shared storytelling hub, and conservation workforce scholarships. 2. Finance Solutions: Many conservation measures have proven successful in recent years, but funding remains fragmented and inconsistent, Inman says. The plan calls for practical conservation finance tools, regional investment pilot projects for nature-based and agricultural investments, and ecosystem readiness assessments. “When we create clearer pathways for capital to flow toward measurable outcomes, we unlock the ability to scale solutions that have already proven their value,” Inman says. 3. Science Data: This pillar focuses on using data to ensure that conservation funding is used where it will have the largest impact on conservation challenges. It suggests expanding monitoring systems, collecting data to identify high-impact watershed projects, implementing conservation into the current co-op model, and coordinating resources between co-ops, extension offices, NGOs, and state agencies. Ultimately, Inman hopes that additional data will help community leaders make better decisions. “It’s about ensuring every dollar, every project, and every partnership delivers as much value as possible,” she says. 4. Stacked benefits: This pillar seeks to bring awareness to the fact that investing in conservation measures also yields economic development benefits and community health benefits. Rather than being competing priorities, Inman argues, they are complementary investments. “When we approve watershed help, we are also strengthening rural economies, improving public health, supporting tourism, increasing resiliency to floods and droughts, enhancing wildlife habitat, protecting drinking water, creating jobs, and helping communities become more attractive places to live, work, and play,” she says. Inman hopes the pillars of the Shared Action Plan will lead to ongoing conversations, creative partnerships, and lasting progress. “This plan is not the finish line,” Inman says. “It’s a starting point.” Grant Kvalheim, CEO of West Des Moines-based Athene and a Great Outdoors Foundation board member, is one of the leaders who has already stepped up to help address Iowa’s water quality problem. The company sponsored the Watershed26 conference and Kvalheim hopes to see more local business leaders serve as catalysts for further conservation success in the state. He echoes Inman’s belief that conservation, business, and agriculture leaders can work together successfully. “Iowa is an agricultural state,” Kvalheim says. “The state is proud of that and it should be. The farm community has been feeding the world. But getting to a cleaner water supply is mission-critical.” Kvalheim recommends that people on all sides of the issue put aside their differences and preconceived notions and work together on long-term solutions that will help Iowans leave a lasting legacy to future generations. Rather than focusing on the past, he hopes that state and business leaders look to the future. “People talking about how we got here is a waste of emotional energy. It took us a long time to get here and it’s going to take a long time to get out,” Kvalheim says. “Let’s just start with where we are and figure out where we’re going from here. I think we should all have the ambition to leave the world better than how we found it.” Explore the Watershed26 Shared Action Plan and find out how to get involved.   ...read more read less