PHOTO BY GARRY BRANDENBURG Campground pads and access roadways at Green Castle Recreation Area are complete, however not quite ready for occupancy until the spring of 2025.

Writing this article, I find it hard to believe we are halfway through the first month of a new year! Time truly flies by! With the start of the new year, as per the Iowa Code, Marshall County Conservation must create an Annual Report that covers the previous fiscal year’s highlights. This report is posted on the county website, where I’m guessing a handful of people take the time to read. Which, in my honest opinion, is too bad! Because there is a lot of great information in there that helps to inform you about precisely what we do and the funds we use to do it! This year’s annual report covers the 2024 Fiscal Year (FY), from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024.

The annual report is also an excellent way for our organization to reflect on all it has accomplished, and FY 24 could only be described as a year of growth. A lot of this growth was possible due to the funds from the American Rescue Plan Act. Those funds allowed Marshall County Conservation to move forward on large projects that had been waiting in the wings for funding for quite a while.

Timmons Grove South Recreation Area received a makeover, including installing a four-stall bathroom and shower house. The construction of the first flushable toilets in the Marshall County Conservation area in the past 20 years and the first shower house facilities. Paid for by ARPA dollars, donations, and a LAWCON Grant, the new facilities add a need component to the Timmons Grove Campground. Other improvements to the campground included the addition of accessible campsites, additional larger campsites, tree plantings, a new kiosk, and a park entrance sign. Since these improvements, we have seen a significant increase in use in Timmons Grove and income for the county.

In FY 2024, we also began the construction of Green Castle Campground. A project that had waited over 10 years to find its feet, which were ARPA dollars. Additional funds from the Community Foundation, Friends of Marshall County Conservation, and other donors made this project possible. This spring, the campground will be open for business!

Through grant funding and ARPA, Marshall County Conservation expanded Sand Lake to include an additional 80 acres, 35 of which are water, to increase fishing access. We also used grants to purchase a dock for Arti and Red’s Pond to make the pond a great place for all ages.

Another bright spot was that we had 224 volunteers who gave 3,000 hours to help throughout our parks, making improvements that will last for decades. Our Friends Group continued to thrive and host amazing free concerts that brought over 1,000 people to the Leonard Grimes Memorial Amphitheater.

We hosted national and statewide events, such as the North American Prairie Conference and Project Aware, bringing people across the county to show them what Marshall County has to offer. We also collaborated with state and federal organizations to build wetlands and plant prairies and trees, creating much-needed habitat for wildlife throughout Marshall County.

All of this is just the tip of the iceberg of 2024, and if I tell it all here, you’ll never go and read the annual report yourself. As time flies by, that means we have very little time to accomplish big goals here at Marshall County Conservation, and we aren’t afraid to dream big and work hard to get it done. The question I have for you is… How can you help?

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Emily Herring is the director of the

Marshall County Conservation Board.