Wildlife Corridors

Wildlife corridors are connections for plants and animals to move to survive in the future, connecting habitat areas that traverse across the landscape, allowing plants and animals to disperse in a semi-natural fashion, moving north due to climate change so they can find thermal happy zone, reconnecting fragmentation across the landscape,

Wildlife corridors connect key habitat areas.  Small isolated populations tend to go extinct since there is no genetic exchange during breeding seasons.  Wildlife corridors provide a better chance of keeping species alive.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources created a  Wildlife Action Plan.  The Wildlife Action Plan is a good starting point and we need to continue implementation of the Plan.  The Wildlife Action Plan for Cores and Corridors is a map of areas in the state that are prime for re-wilding. 

As we implement policies to re-wild Iowa, private land will be part of the solution as well as public land.  Private landowners can voluntarily protect their land as well as set conservation easements on the property that can keep the wild areas wild in perpetuity.

By protecting core areas and by providing buffers and then by connecting them with corridors, plants and animals will have a chance to re-wild Iowa.

Re-Wilding Iowa and Beyond - Restore, Reconnect, Re-Wild

Significant portions of Iowa are planted in corn and soybeans.  Yet, there are areas in Iowa that remain wild.  By continuing to work in protecting wild and natural areas, wildlife and native plants can thrive.  Damaged areas can be re-wilded.  And we can all benefit from greater access to wildlife, wildlands, and wild rivers.

Although Iowa does not have oceans and mountains, Iowa does have tall grass prairies, woods, savannas, prairie pothole wetlands, lakes and streams.  Iowa enjoys incredibly diverse species of birds, mammals, fish, reptiles and amphibians.  Even more significant is Iowa’s location – Iowa attracts some of the western-most species, some of the eastern-most species, and some of the northern-most species found in the country.

Yet many of the plants and animals found in Iowa are struggling to maintain sustainable populations.  One of the big concerns is to create corridors so that wildlife can move safely from one location to another.  Plants also need sufficient areas to keep their populations healthy. 

Many of the natural areas that remain in Iowa are along rivers.  Stream buffers and riparian woodlands provide a corridor.  Wildlife and plants are able to populate stream buffers.  Clean, unpolluted water, is also a corridor.

Bobcats have benefited from re-wilded areas, and have significantly expanded their range in Iowa.  Black bear, cougars, and wolves have made periodic visits to the state, in an attempt to re-wild Iowa.  Efforts are underway to restore milkweed, a plant required for monarch butterflies.  Iowans have undertaken projects to restore prairie and to protect the prairie that remains. 

Photo shows tall fencing intended to keep wildlife off Highway 20, near the Iowa River crossing in Hardin County, Iowa.