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Carroll, Denison, and Sac City Community Gardens 

This project focuses on providing gardening opportunities to people that typically do not have access to adequate garden space. Additional, it is to conduct outreach to the growing Hispanic and other minority communities and also as part of a larger effort to promote local food systems with the NRCS Beginning and Limited Resource Farmer programs. M&M Divide RC&D partnered with the County Extension Service, city governments, and local municipalities to initiate this project. Funding sources include NRCS, Alliant Energy, Warren Timmerman Fund, and Farmland, Inc., along with considerable in-kind from other entities. There are currently 100 garden plots in Carroll, 28 plots in Denison, and a new garden is being started in Sac City with 12 plots.

Click here for an application to the Carroll Gardens
Click here for an application to the Denison Gardens

Absentee Landowner Outreach 

M&M Divide RC&D, in partnership with A g r e n, Inc., successfully obtained an NRCS National Conservation Innovation Grant as well as another grant from the Great Lakes Protection Fund to pilot outreach projects in 6-8 states including Iowa. In an effort to expand this project, the M&M Divide RC&D received a three-year grant from the Great Lakes Protection Fund to pilot outreach projects to absentee landowners within three states in the Great Lakes region.  Outreach is being conducted to absentee landowners for the purpose of increasing NRCS program participation. The focus is on innovative outreach strategies, evaluating these strategies, developing and improving services, increasing producer participation in cost-share programs, and ultimately implementing conservation practices. 

www.absenteelandowners.org

Best Management Practice Animation 

M&M Divide RC&D entered into a partnership with NRCS to initiate Best Management Practices (BMP) Animation. This multi-year project will focus on developing innovative 3-D computer animations of agricultural best management practices. This technology will be used as a tool to promote the function and benefits to conservation practices to a wide range of audiences. The project has strong potential to become a national educational model for outreach and training for conservation practice education. 

Please select a video from below.

Filter Strip: Stream-side perennial vegetation provides BIG environmental benefits. 5:00 min	English	Spanish
Conservation Tillage: Types, methods, pros & cons. 3:03 min	English	Spanish
Water Erosion: Outlines causes, types, and damages of errant water. 4:08 min	English	Spanish
Water Quality: Common issues are described in getting and keeping clean water. 4:00 min	English	Spanish
Wind Break: Very short animation shows how windbreaks work. 0:32 min	English	Spanish
Wind Erosion: Types and causes of wind erosion is explained. 4:08 min	English	Spanish
Watershed: Explanation of a watershed and its benefits. 2:40 min	English

Community Market Food Cooperative

The M&M Divide RC&D is providing ongoing assistance to the Community Market Coop Project. The goal of this project is to open a regional food cooperative in Carroll. The Community Market will provide an outlet for locally grown organic and natural foods, as well as create employment and contribute to the local economy.

Go to their website at http://www.communitymarketcoop.com 

Lincoln Highway Heritage Byway

 With 3-year funding from the Iowa DOT, the goal of this project is to implement sustainable byway development, marketing and promotion activities.  Francie O'Leary is the Coordinator for the western third of the Lincoln Highway Heritage Byway.  The RC&D manages that effort through Greene, Carroll, Crawford, Harrison, and Pottawattamie Counties.  Local volunteers assist with Byway projects.  The Centennial of the Lincoln Highway will be in 2013.

Click here for Current Lincoln Highway Events!

Volunteer Forms:      History of the Lincoln Highway        Time Card/Calendar
                                   

M&M Divide- Arcadia Roadside Park

This total project is in three phases, which will convert the M&M Divide Roadside Park to the M&M Divide Interpretive Park:

Phase 1 brings the park up to visitor standards for traveler comfort, adding trees and picnic tables.
Phase 2 will install numerous interpretive panels having a historical bearing on this site or region.
Phase 3 will re-gravel the park roadway, install new highway access signage, and improve the park.

M&M Divide RC&D is acting as the fiscal agent for project.  Other sponsors are the Iowa DOT and the Carroll County Conservation Board (CCCB).

Maple River Center #5 School

The roof one-room school house building in Graham Park of Carroll is in need of repairs.  The Carroll County Historical Society, with the help of the M&M Divide, has submitted a grant to cover the costs for removal as well as re-sheeting of the roof.  The new roof will help preserve the building and provide a viable one-room museum for future generations of elementary school students.

Raccoon River Water Basin

The M&M Divide RC&D Inc. was recently selected by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to generate a master plan that will clean up the waters of the Raccoon River and therefore the drinking water for the Des Moines Metropolitan Area.  The plan will be completed by June 2011 and will be comprehensive in improving water quality while being practical in application.  This plan will guide the DNR and the Iowa Legislature in the development of policy for future water quality issues on the Raccoon and across Iowa.  The RC&D was awarded $250,000 for plan development through federal environmental quality watershed funding.  The M&M Divide RC&D has partnered with Agren Inc., a local Carroll agricultural consulting firm, for development of the planning process.

Please click here for additional information, project updates and meeting recordings.

Past Projects

Panora Public Library

Provided fundraising and marketing assistance to the Friends of the Panora Public Library. Funds were raised to build a new Public Library on Panora's town square and was completed in 2006.

Sac County Conservation Center                 

The M&M Divide assisted the Sac County Conservation Board with a capital campaign to raise $600,000 to build a new conservation education center at Hagge Park by Sac City.

National Immigrant Farmer Initiative

This project focused on building organizational and productive capacity among immigrant community  gardeners in Denison, Iowa in order to enable them to transition to market gardening, and to create a replicable model for community garden programs in Iowa and beyond.

Panora Public Library

Provided fundraising and marketing assistance to the Friends of the Panora Public Library. Funds were raised to build a new Public Library on Panora's town square and was completed in 2006.

Old Glory Park - Brayton, Iowa

Assisted in fundraising efforts to purchase and install new playground equipment in Brayton, IA.

Carroll Farmers Market

M&M Divide assumed the responsibility of organizing and coordinating the Carroll Farmers Market from 2006 until 2010 when they were able to run the Market themselves. Commercial Savings Bank was an official sponsor of the Carroll Farmers Market.