A mild winter and early spring is making for an exciting summer for the Washington County Conservation board, as they held their monthly meeting Thursday night. The agenda included discussing summer staff positions, and going over several project updates. Board director Steve Anderson talks about a project that he says has great community interest, “Our ranger Mark Even is working on an upgrade to our shooting range… we forwarded the pad that will create a new total shooting station on the 25 yard range that when it’s over will amount to a really nice set of shooting benches and nice canopy and it should be a huge upgrade.”

Other updates discussed included an upgraded sound system in the Conservation Education Center, and updates to the Kiwi Avenue Crossing and the Kewash Nature Trail. Much of these projects are due to the large help of the conservation volunteers. Anderson said the department is on schedule for its yearly tasks, including prescribed burns happening currently, and the board will be busy with various improvement projects over the summer. Anderson has already heard positive reports, “We’re hearing a few reports of people finding a few more mushrooms, so we expect to see a lot more of that going on out there, and then we’re hearing more and more very positive fishing reports so this is a good time to be in southeast Iowa and we encourage people to go out and enjoy it.”