A young male turkey is slowly walking to the safety of a pile of downed cedar trees, near the entrance road to Green Valley State Park’s campground. The tree piles located around the park are part of a project reclaiming the hillsides for prairie, offering important nesting for grassland birds and protecting the lake from sediment erosion.
“These transition periods can be a little visually messy but when finished, but when the prairie is back on the land and visitors can see the lake, it will be pretty neat,” said Chad Paup, wildlife biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) nearby Grand River Unit.
The cedar tree piles are visual evidence of the work underway, opening the area up to prairie restoration. The piles will disappear over time as part of the DNR’s annual late winter early spring prescribed fire season. Evidence of existing prairie has been reappearing in the clearings, especially by the dam.
“This area is loaded with prairie blazing star,” Paup said.
The habitat work is a part of a long-term effort to knock back unwanted invaders and open up and return native prairie and savanna to the land.
“Bottle gentian was under the Reed canary grass and really showed after the invasives were burned, but it’s a constant battle with canary grass to keep it at bay,” he said.
Green Valley State Park, with its campsites, restrooms, playgrounds, fishing jetties and piers, boat ramps, cabins, canoe launch, fish cleaning stations and miles of trails, is one piece of a larger complex in Northwest Union County.
The outlet of Green Valley Lake is the water source for Summit Lake that flows through Mitchell Marsh, a 360-acre waterfowl and upland hunting area, connecting Green Valley to Creston.
Given its location and consistent water source, Mitchell Marsh is popular with duck hunters and paddlers. Summit Lake has a no wake restriction is also popular with paddlers and offers an opportunity to catch yellow perch, in addition to bluegills, crappies and largemouth bass.
The complex has two areas that extend east of Green Valley Lake Road, with the largest being roughly 160 acres of Mitchell Marsh. This section of Mitchell Marsh is mostly prairie with food plots, a dove field and a marsh that is popular with hunters.
One and a half miles to its north is the 69-acre Gator Recreation Area, that was initially acquired to hold sediment removed from the most recent lake dredging project, around 15 years ago.
Today, it’s actively managed to provide pheasant and quail hunting, has a popular dove hunting plot that rotates between sunflowers and soybeans. A local farmer partners with the DNR to maintain all the food plots on the complex. The Gator tract received prescribed fire a few weeks ago targeting cool season grasses and to knock back cedars and the native vegetation has already returned.
Driving into the park from the northwest side, leads to a gravel parking lot next to the grassed surfaced trail section surrounding the lake. Two anglers are fishing from a boat near a silt dike, serenaded by spring peers and chorus frogs. Mourning doves can be heard cooing from a distance.
With the diverse, mixed-use public areas two miles north of Creston, visitors can experience mother nature with the comfort and convenience of nearby restaurants, retail shops and hotels.
“Fall is a great time to be here, view fall colors in southern Iowa, make a weekend of fishing for panfish or bass at Green Valley or other nearby lakes,” Paup said. “When you put it all together, it’s pretty unique.”