recreation

Taxes for the environment

malhughes Politics , , , , , , , , ,

Photo by Teresa Meadows; Flickr.
Photo by Teresa Meadows; Flickr.

The Iowa Public Radio released a segment yesterday about an upcoming bill that’s “a dream come true” for environmentalists and natural resource advocates.

The bill raises the state sales tax for a natural resource trust fund that was approved two years ago.

The amendment says that any time Iowa raises its sales tax, a portion of the penny of it should go toward natural resources.

If it passes, the sales taxes devoted to the trust fund would be raised to over a third of a cent over the next three years, and will be utilized for conservation, recreation, and water quality in the state.

Listen to the full story here.

 

On the Radio: Experience Iowa’s natural beauty through geocaching

Michael Gallagher On the Radio , , , ,

Photo by lindztrom, Flickr.

Listen to this week’s radio segment here or read the transcript below. This week’s episode discusses a popular outdoor recreational activity known as geocaching.

Thanks to geocaching, you don’t have to be a pirate to search for treasure in Iowa.

This is the Iowa Environmental Focus.

Geocaching is an outdoor recreational activity where participants use GPS tracking to find various buried objects, referred to as “caches”. Geocachers can find the coordinates of nearby caches online from many different websites.

This is a great way to explore Iowa’s nature. There are caches all over our state along beautiful nature trails. Iowa even has an official geocaching organization with thousands of members.

The caches range in size. Some are small containers that only contain a logbook for geocachers to sign. Other caches contain objects such as a button or a playing card that geocachers can take in exchange for another prize.

For more information, including links to online geocaching resources, visit IowaEnvironmentalFocus.org.

I’m Jerry Schnoor from the UI Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research.

Thank You.