CRESCENT, Iowa (KMTV) — In this edition of the Morning Lift, 3 News Now's Zach Williamson heads out to Crescent, Iowa to ride shotgun with Pottawattamie County Conservation Executive Director Jeff Franco.
Franco takes us for a ride in through the Loess Hills at Hitchcock Nature Center and Crescent Hill in the Loess Hills. Pottawattamie County owns both places.
There's only two places in the world that have a Loess Hills land form. The other is in China along the Yellow River, but they've been degraded to the point where they no longer posses any of their natural characteristics - making the Loess Hills in western Iowa truly one-of-one.
Franco says once you lose prairie it is for all purposes gone. He said Iowa used to be covered in 85 percent prairie, but because it has such rich soils, it was tilled up for agriculture. Today, there's less than one tenth of one percent of Iowa's prairie remaining. He says most of it is in the Loess Hills because it is so rugged.
The rugged hills have brought people out to Hitchcock Nature Center to prepare for going out west for backpacking trips, and even for Mt. Everest! Hitchcock Nature Center is about 1,500 acres with a goal of getting to about 2,100 - 2,200 acres.
The county purchased Crescent Hill in December of 2021. Franco says the county has already invested more than $2 million dollars into the snow making system to create better snow, and to allow Crescent Hill to open earlier and close later into the season.
Earlier this year, Pottawattamie County announced the Four-Season Master Plan at Crescent Hill. Franco said the layout and infrastructure there allows them to do biiger ticket items and maybe bring something in that is a regional draw.
He says the SE Group has played a huge role in the planning.
Franco also tells us about:
- What wildlife calls the Loess Hills and Hitchcock home.
- How the 2020 pandemic brought Hithcock into the spotlight.
- What makes the Loess Hills land form different than any other.
- The work being done by the crew to to help native species grow and thrive.
- How a private owner almost turned Hitchcock into a landfill in the late 1980s before neighbors intervened.
- Why controlled burns and cattle grazing is crucial to plains.
