The environment at Nahant Marsh was a warm, sticky, and wet one. The three-foot deep pond is clear to see out in the mid-prairie, and there were many nice people there to explain the history of the Marsh and what all of its purposes are.

“By 1881, Iowa was considered ‘settled’ and Nahant Marsh was one of the few wetlands still remaining,” says Bob Bryant, biologist at Nahant.“Nahant used to be a trap and skeet club for hunters but geese would start to die by the number.” Bryant expressed the importance in why cleaning up the marsh like they did was so vital. A while back, they spent two million dollars to excavate all of the lead out of the wetland. Fifty dumpster truck loads of lead were taken out, and yet there is still some remaining in there that unfortunately infects many organisms today with lead poisoning. Geese are not the only animals that suffered from lead poisoning, muskrats and other rodents died from it too.

While many other things have been done to help the animals at Nahant Marsh, including new turtle logs to lie out on, they are still making new helpful environment enhancers to make them more comfortable in their habitat. The staff and helpers at the marsh are considering buying some new land to add to the large reserve. This only proves even more that they are absolutely dedicated to making a better life for the protected and unprotected species there.

At Nahant, they also had a professional there to help with understanding the animals. Dave Murcia, the head of the Wapsi River Environmental Education Center, was there to explain the importance of all the animals that are local to Iowa. He also informed us about the sad and tragic loss of all the grassland and prairie that our state has lost since the beginning.

“Iowa has lost 99 percent of all its original grassland and now only one percent of prairie remains. We need to rebuild and get them back,” says Dave Murcia. Overall, this trip was very informative and gave us a wake up call to all that is going on in our state of Iowa.