This Frequency show will include catching up with a periodic guest who is director of a notable entity in the Iowa Great Lakes area.
Joining me for this show is Mary Skopec, who is executive director of Iowa Lakeside Laboratory, which functions in the Okoboji area as a combo of a college campus, museum, and state park.
Lakeside Lab is close to finishing a $6.4 million expansion, so we will hear the latest on that, plus how the summer season went there, as we move past Labor Day, which is what a lot of people consider the end of the traditional summer season.
We also will preview the upcoming Iowa Water Conference, which takes place September 16-17 at Arnolds Park, Iowa. Skopec is also one of the keynote speakers at that Iowa Water Conference.
Iowa Lakeside Laboratory is on the west side of West Lake Okoboji, near the village of Wahpeton.
"I love to come out here and see how the prairie is changing every day," Skopec said.
More than 100 years ago, a University of Iowa official saw the immense natural resources that were present along that lakes region, and felt strongly that it should be studied and monitored at a time America was changing to become more modern and industrial.
That was created as a learning place for students for all three public universities.
Skopec described the scientific work that happens at Iowa Lakeside Laboratory, and what that has revealed over the decades about West Lake Okoboji and the greater lakes area.
The annual Iowa Water Conference brings together water professionals from many sectors, with researchers, students, urban and rural planners, and representatives from such agencies as the Iowa Department of Agriculture, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, and some conservation districts.
The conference is seen as one of the Midwest’s leading water focused events, and this year is the 20th anniversary.
*Click on the audio link above to hear the entire show.
What's The Frequency, Episode 119.
