Big Sand Mound
What a Place for a Nature Preserve!
June 2023
Muscatine, IA – Strange bedfellows?
Ornate box turtles, western hognose snakes, prickly pear cactus, hairy puccoons, sand lovegrass, and other unusual species share a unique Mississippi Valley habitat with a coal-fired power station and a chemical manufacturing plant. Who’d have thought?
The 510-acre Big Sand Mound Nature Preserve began with 420 acres set aside in 1977 by Iowa-Illinois Gas and Electric (now MidAmerican Energy) near the Louisa Generating Station the company was building on a 1,600-acre site. Neighboring Monsanto (now Bayer, a German-based multinational corporation that markets agricultural chemicals, pharmaceuticals, seeds, and health care products) added 90 acres in 1981. Bayer now has about 200 acres – nearly half of its land - in conservation.
Admittedly, a chemical/biotechnology firm and a fossil-fuel power plant might not be the first companies that come to mind when one focuses on natural area preservation. And the desert-like habitat of Big Sand Mound seems a bit incongruous for a site along the Mississippi River. But when the preserve was created, Dean M. Roosa, former ecologist for the Iowa State Preserves Advisory Board, said “For protection of endangered species in pure numbers, it’s the most important area in the state.”
Big Sand Mound gets its name – and its dunes – from sand deposited up to 20,000 years ago by glacial meltwater flowing down the valley we now call the Mississippi River. Subsequent erosion left a vast mound 40-50 feet above the floodplain. That height above, yet proximity to, the Mississippi, made the site suitable for an electrical power generating station.
But the unusual landform and resulting habitat, unlike the wooded hills that line much of the Mississippi Valley, also hosted a diverse natural community of uncommon plants and animals.
Although Iowa-Illinois and Monsanto officials realized the potential environmental conflicts, they moved ahead with the industrial projects, promising to protect the sand dunes, sand barrens, dry prairies, wetlands, and other habitats that support a host of rare species.
To protect the fragile natural area, MidAmerican and Bayer now follow management guidelines from an ecological advisory committee with members from state, county, federal, and private entities. Their techniques include prescribed fire to maintain the prairie, water diversion to stabilize wetlands, and chemical or mechanical control of invasive species such as red cedar and black locust.
“The research and conservation groups that are involved really contribute the most to the overall success of the preserve, said Sarah Marston,” Health, Safety and Environmental Management Systems Lead for Bayer. “Without them, we wouldn't know how to best use our budgets to benefit all the species.”
Hundreds of students and researchers regularly use Big Sand Mound as an outdoor classroom. However, access to the general public is limited to carefully supervised field days every few years. We were lucky enough to participate in early June.
As we drove U. S. Highway 61 around the southwest side of Muscatine, the huge smokestack from the MidAmerican power station dominated the horizon. To some, the towering chimney might symbolize our addiction to fossil fuels. But to others, that smokestack marks a site where industry and Nature have been able to coexist.
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Thanks, Diane!
I'm enjoying your My Gaia posts, too!
I love the pix of kids with turtle, lizard, snake and plants. Thank you for bringing this preserve to people's attention. Great stuff.