Last year, the National Park Service identified twelve "special landscape areas" in the Loess Hills. The amendment adopted today directs the park service to evaluate these areas for preservation purposes and report to Congress by January 15, 2001.
Harkin and Grassley offered their proposal to the annual spending bill for the Interior Department, which is under consideration in the U.S. Senate. It has been included in the manager's amendment on the floor. Senate approval of the package is expected yet today. The House passed its version of the Interior appropriations bill in June. It does not include a provision for study of the Loess Hills. The two plans must be reconciled.
Previously, a joint effort by Iowa's senators secured $275,000 for a federal study looking at how best to protect parts of the Loess Hills.
"Local communities in Western Iowa first laid the foundation for the National Park Service review of options to protect the natural beauty of the Loess Hills," Grassley said. "The Hills create a unique geographic area that deserves recognition. Reaching across seven counties in parts of the most beautiful farmland in the country, it ranks among the most outstanding natural wonders of the world."
"The Loess Hills are an Iowa treasure ? the federal government should explore making them a national treasure," Harkin said. "The Loess Hills represent a unique environment not only for Iowa, but for the entire Midwest. We need to preserve the beauty of the Loess Hills so, generations of Iowans and all Americans would be guaranteed access to a beautiful and protected natural resource."
The Loess Hills have natural distinctions which are found in only one other place in the world. Soil deposited by wind over many centuries formed the Hills, which support several species of rare native prairie grass. They spread across 600,000 acres in Fremont, Harrison, Mills, Monona, Plymouth, Pottawattamie, and Woodbury counties in Iowa.