Conservation News
Clinton County acquires conservation land; Area will become largest limestone prairie in state
By Rebecca Boysen
GOOSE LAKE, Iowa -- The Clinton County Conservation Board has teamed up with the Iowa National Heritage Foundation to purchase a 134-acre addition that will roughly quadruple the size of the Manikowski Prairie Preserve in the northern part of the county.
Manikowski Prairie, just north of Goose Lake, is the largest limestone prairie in Iowa and has been dedicated as a state preserve.
Clinton County Conservation Board officials said an inventory of the prairie's plants uncovered more than 160 species, as well as a species of rare fern that has never before been recorded in Iowa, called the wal-rue spleenwort.
"It's a unique and special kind of prairie," said Mark Roberts of the Clinton County Conservation Board.
The conservation board plans to create one huge, stable prairie. Walt Wickham, deputy director of the Clinton County Conservation Board, said that will make Manikowski Prairie among the largest prairie preserves of any kind in Iowa.
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