Lisa Newby

What are you doing to practice and promote soil and water quality?

I joined the team at Agri Drain Corporation in 1994, and currently serve as Agri Drain’s Vice President. For over 25 years, I have had the pleasure of working with land improvement contractors, producers, and landowners throughout Iowa, across the United States, and into Canada. Agri Drain manufactures high-quality, durable, and innovative products used for in-field and edge-of-field agronomic and conservation practices such as drainage water management, sub-irrigation, saturated buffers, bio-reactors, ponds, and wetlands to conserve and improve water quality, minimize soil erosion and nutrient loss, and improve water quality.

What is being done in your county to support soil and water quality?

Agri Drain supports many public/private partnership efforts throughout Iowa to advance producer adoption of conservation drainage practices in a system approach, and promote installation of best management practices to improve water quality and build community awareness for conservation. Agri Drain Corporation is a leading innovator with expertise in the automation of conservation drainage products and practices to help encourage widespread adoption of conservation practices.

What could be done with more public funding for soil and water quality?

A great example of how municipalities can work together and partner with landowners to improve water quality is proven through a “batch and build” approach similar to one like Polk County Soil & Water Conservation District recent implemented. This scalable system added 51 edge-of-field practices in Polk County during 2021. Often times, these conservation practices can be installed during the summer months, allowing drainage contractors to have additional workload available to them. Funding for that project was made available through Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, along with federal, city, county, conservation organizations and private partners. For more information, feel free to visit; https://www.iaagwater.org/ Removing burdens for landowners, bundling edge-of-field practices into one large bid package, and having a central fiscal agent manage the funding allows for the installation of water-shed scale projects, which increases the number of conservation practices that can be installed each year.