Hunters, hikers and spectators can enjoy a relatively new area for outdoor recreation in southeast Iowa.

Wapello Bottoms Wildlife Area is a 2,800-acre public area developing on the Iowa River floodplain in Louisa County. Thanks to a partnership between the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the wet farmland weary landowners, members of the public can come view the landscape, see wildlife, kayak, or hunt. Iowa Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Biologist Andy Robbins encourages everyone who loves the outdoors to come and experience the area, “I just think there’s probably something down there for everybody. We really gear it towards hunting and fishing and accesses, you know, for those purposes. Anytime of year you’ll see someone down there fishing or kayaking or someone out just utilizing the area. It’s really been just kind of an attraction for the county as far as drawing people from just around the area, just to have a place to recreate for multiple different uses.”

Wapello Bottoms follows the Iowa River starting from northeast of Wapello and nearly reaches the Horseshoe Bend National Wildlife Refuge. The former pasture ground is now a prairie and it changes colors during the year with yellow flowers currently showing their colors and asters expected to be next. Roughly 40% of the area is water which makes the landscape home to wetland and grassland birds, deer, pheasants and turtles. A sunflower field that is visited by a local deer herd can be found just south of the boat ramp on the west side. Robbins adds the lack of noise pollution makes the area a great way to experience what Iowa nature has to offer.