At nearly 5,800 acres, Volga River State Recreation Area is hard to miss.
Just a few miles north and east of Fayette, Volga River has two campgrounds, one offering services to equestrians, and one offering services to traditional recreation vehicle campers with modern amenities; 22 miles of rugged trails, nearly all multi-use; a lake, a river, and the opportunity to hunt much of the timber prairie complex.
“There’s not a lot of outdoor experiences that you can’t do at Volga,” said Austin Lette, park manager at Volga River State Recreation Area for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Hunting, hiking, camping, a 20-target archery course, wild edibles, paddling, fishing, horseback riding, mountain biking, wildlife watching and more.
An area of this size and diversity takes a lot of work to manage the resource and maintain the facilities.
Jason Auel, wildlife biologist with the Iowa DNR, said the forest wildlife stewardship plan included a recent 20-acre clear cut on a ridge near the western entrance that had been under planted before the cut was done.
“We will begin a forest stand improvement with the goal to keep the oaks we have on Volga,” Auel said. “And we have plans on converting a good portion of the ag fields into prairie and timber. In three to five years, it will look a lot different.”
Work on the conversion began this spring when 120 acres of former ag fields were seeded to prairie, and 12 acres were planted to trees.
“As the timber and prairie habitat is improved, we hope to see an increase in the bird community,” Auel said.
One bird in particular that they hope will return is ruffed grouse.
“Volga use to be a ruffed grouse hotspot and we’re actively trying to bring them back,” he said. “We’ve identified 100 different Aspen stands this winter and had begun work to improve and cut them to benefit the grouse.”
Ruffed grouse require a specific Aspen stand stem density associated with young, vigorous forests that often are the result of a clear cutting, fire or other disturbance, and must be conducted every 15-20 years to avoid population decline.
In 2024, there was a report of a grouse drumming here, so the DNR hosted a grouse survey and deployed four audio recording devices this spring hoping to hear one. Unfortunately, they came up empty.
“By focusing on improving grouse habitat, we hope they will come back naturally,” Auel said. “But even if they don’t show up, the habitat benefits for the area will be huge.”
Volga is already a popular place to hunt squirrels, deer and turkeys and for hunters to stay in the campgrounds each fall.
The modern campground has 41 campsites: 38 full hookups, two with electric and water, and one electric only. “They’re busy all the time,” Lette said. “People really like the concrete pull-throughs.”
Campsites towards the back of the campground are a little more secluded and people like that experience, too, he said.
“Most state parks are around 1,000 acres or less. Volga is around 5,800 acres of natural land, has different ecosystems – river, lake, forest, prairie. It’s northeast Iowa, arduous, rugged and rocky. It really has something for everyone, sightseeing, birding, mountain biking, whatever you want to do, you can probably find it here.”
Lette said Volga River’s extensive trail system is in the process of getting a new rock surface and the hope is, that once the new surface is down, the section of trail could be open for equestrian use during wet conditions.
“We received a trail grant to help pay for the project and started rocking the southwest quadrant of trails last summer,” he said.
The primary difference between a state park and a state recreation area is hunting. Hunting is allowed in a state recreation area, with the 200-yard setback from any campground or occupied building.
“We get a lot of calls from hunters, especially turkey hunters from the southeast – North Carolina, Mississippi,” Lette said. “We’re getting more turkey hunters here than in the past.”
Auel said local hunters have been asking about adding some dove fields, which they did last year, and have expanded to 30 acres of sunflowers this year.
Work is also continuing on infrastructure projects that has required the equestrian campground to be temporarily closed this summer to allow contractors to replace a bridge with a box culvert. There is also a plan to install a number of sediment basins to intercept sediment and nutrients before entering the lake.
Management and habitat projects have come from across the agency: fisheries, forestry, parks and wildlife.
“It’s really good when we have an opportunity like this to all work together,” Auel said.
Grand Plans for Volga River
There were big plans for Volga River in the 1960s - a 1,200-acre lake, 3-4 campgrounds with around 200 campsites, cabins, and a ski lift that would take sledders to the top of a long sledding hill. As with many projects, as work progressed and costs rose, the grand plans had to be modified and downsized.
Case in point, the 1,200-acre lake.
The ground under where the large lake was planned consisted of fractured limestone and unable to hold water. So after a few redesigns and downsizing, the lake was scaled back to the current 135 acres.
Fishing action is good in the lake, but the size of fish is marginal.