First Show...Photos and Comment
by Michael P. Libbie - Host & Insight Advertising Marketing/Communications
We arrived at 6:45am and the hour went by...very quickly! The first airing of Highway 6 - "Your Road to the Country" was heard here in the Des Moines Market. The show, designed to reach rural lifestyle folks living on 3 - 100 acres of land is NOT a farm show. It is a lifestyle show that talks about issues important to living in the country and is brought to Central Iowa by Foton-Mayer Farm Implement & Country Vet Pet Foods.
Our first guest was Robin Pruisner who is the State of Iowa Entomologist (think bugs!). She comes to us from the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship and was a fantastic first guest.
We discussed her role in assisting Iowans (rural and urban) with a host of issues and spent some time on the Emerald Ash Bore (EAB). For those of you who have not yet heard about this critter you need to be aware of its destructive nature. The EAB was first found in Michigan where in less than three growing seasons destroyed thousands of Ash trees. It has already invaded Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. Is it in Iowa? "We're not really sure", said Robin. "We are looking and while some Ash trees in NE Iowa have shown stress we've not been able to pinpoint EAB."
The EAB creates tunnels under the bark of Ash trees and can kill thousands in a growing cycle. Why is that important in Iowa? "There are over 50 million Ash trees in Iowa and many have been planted in small towns and cities because they create a wonderful canopy. I've seen whole towns in Michigan where there once were tree lined streets and today they are bare as each infected tree had to be cut down and chopped up. At an average cost of $650 a tree, you can see the economic impact that would have here in Iowa."
Robin's department is tasked with, among other things, educating the public about the EAB and how we might keep it at bay. For more information readers are urged to contact their Extension office or go directly to the Iowa Department of Agriculture website.
In addition to the serious stuff about EAB I talked about the upcoming state annual meeting of Practical Farmers of Iowa to be held in Des Moines on January 12 - 13 and some of their educational programs including how to create markets for acreage owners for food products. We also discussed current weather patterns and the potential for the return to winter and finally the issues surrounding rural fire departments. Finally, Robin gave us some great information about the directories for any number of issues related to agriculture and land stewardship.
Our thanks to our sponsors: Country Vet Pet Foods and Foton - Mayer Farm Implements for their help in reaching the 148,000 rural non-farm folks in Central Iowa. Our thanks also to Jason our engineer who ran the board and kept us on time.
Hwy. 6 - Your Road to the Country can be heard each Sunday morning at 7am on 98.3 - WOW-FM. When you are in the area...stop in and let's visit!
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