The Winnebago County Board of Supervisors are dealing with a pair of unresolved mitigation efforts with a few area landowners. According to Winnebago County Drainage Clerk Kris Oswald, there are landowners in Drainage District 11 on the Main Tile where the issue is over a year old.
The Iowa Mitigation Bank Oswald spoke of is a group of land parcels around Iowa including one near Des Moines which farmers can purchase for conservation purposes. These then qualify the farmers to receive conservation payments. Oswald told the county supervisors that the county has to wait for acres to open up.
The supervisors learned that they had a decision to make about possibly extending the deadline to get the mitigation issue resolved.
Oswald reminded the board who are acting as trustees in the drainage district, how things have progressed since 2020.
The cost to the county would be $15,000 per acre for the mitigation. Since there are no more acres that would be eligible and this project has been ongoing since 2018, the board opted to allow the program to expire. The decision was made based on uncertainty of more acres coming available in the future and that it would become cost prohibitive for the district and the county.
