North Iowa Outdoors: New Book Out on Iowa’s Precious Waterways

A new book by an Iowa author implores people to preserve the waterways that sustain our crops — and our lives — by tackling tough issues from climate change to nitrate pollution. Professor Neil Hamilton, who recently retired after 36 years directing the Agricultural Law Center at Drake University, uses the river as a narrator in his book, “The River Knows.”

Runoff from farm fields has led to multi-million-dollar lawsuits between utilities like Des Moines Water Works and Iowa’s agricultural community. Those nitrates are blamed for causing up to 40-percent of the so-called dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, an area covering more than 6,000 square miles that’s void of marine and plant life.

Hamilton, who grew up in southern Iowa’s Adams County near Lenox, says it’s a true challenge to reach a solution when we’re raising crops on some 25-million acres of land every year. Asking farmers to voluntarily change their ways, he says, isn’t working.

“The River Knows” is the sequel to Hamilton’s 2022 book, “The Land Remains,” where Iowa’s fertile, underappreciated soil told its own story.

Clean water is both endangered and resilient, he says, and Hamilton remains optimistic water warriors will rise to defend rivers and streams, preserving them for future generations. The book is available at many Iowa bookstores and through the publisher, Ice Cube Press, based in North Liberty.

The Land Remains