Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds has proclaimed April 30 – May 7 as Soil and Water Conservation Week and the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship invited Iowans to participate throughout the week. The public was invited to tour an abandoned coal mine site that is undergoing reclamation work with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship’s Mines and Minerals Bureau Tuesday at 1791 Lucas Drive, Knoxville.

Iowa Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Grant Menke, Congresswoman Marianette Miller-Meeks, and US Department of the Interior staff spoke at the event. 

Larry Sytsma, the land owner, tells KNIA/KRLS News, “The big thing is for me to get to see it somewhat what it used to be when I was a kid. My grandparents  lived here, so I grew up over here. I just like to see it like it used to be, that’s a big part of it for me.”

The event was hosted by the Marion County Soil and Water Conservation District, Pathfinders RC&D, United States Department of Interior Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, and the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship.