- [Female Advertiser] Wheelan Presley Funeral Home and Crematory, a proud supporter of WQPT has been serving Quad City families since 1889.

They now have livestream capabilities for viewing your loved one's funeral or memorial service.

- [Male Advertiser] At IHMVCU, we've always been here for you.

You are and always will be our top at priority.

We care about your financial and physical health and we are here.

IHMVCU is a proud supporter of WQPT.

- A serious concern in Iowa's poultry flocks and new momentum for the Bison Bridge in The Cities.

(bright upbeat music) It has only been found in fewer than 10 flocks, but more than six million birds have been destroyed because of HPAI, Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza.

It's been found in birds in four Western Iowa counties, but it's insidious because it can travel so easily, so quickly, even by migratory birds passing through.

We talked with Iowa's Agriculture Secretary, Mike Naig about this, the impact on farmers from the war on Ukraine and the future of farming.

Thank you, Mr. Secretary for joining us, let's talk about Avian flu first.

Why is this such a serious situation for state agriculture?

- Well, good to be with you and a foreign animal disease, and those are specific diseases that have trade implications to them.

So things like High Path Avian Influenza, African swine fever, foot and mouth disease.

These are things that, if you of them in your country, they typically impact trade with other parts of the world.

In addition, they are devastating to the producers, to the farm families and businesses that raise that livestock and so it is an economic impact.

It's certainly an impact to those families.

And so when we look at a foreign animal disease, we're always thinking about how can we identify affected sites early and how can we act quickly to isolate the virus and contain it and hopefully prevent the spread.

We last had High Path in the state of Iowa in 2015, and we had a significant outbreak that year and we learned a lot.

We improved our plans.

We have exercised our plans for the last several years.

My team is ready to go.

It's a hard situation, but we're executing on our plans.

- Well, and we're talking some six million poultry have already been put down and you put that into perspective that in a way it's almost twice the human population of Iowa.

I mean, this is really significant even though Iowa has such a ginormous poultry flock compared to other states.

- Yeah, we do, we're a leading egg producer.

We're the number one egg producing state in the nation.

We're number seven in Turkey.

And we actually have a growing broiler or chicken production sector in, especially in Western and Southwestern Iowa.

So it is a big number.

However, that number, we only have six confirmed sites as of now and four commercial sites.

So two laying facilities, egg producing facilities and two Turkey facilities and then two Backyard flocks.

And that's an important thing to remember that this can affect the very large producers.

And it can also affect somebody with only a few chickens, a few birds in their backyard.

And so it's important for everyone to be watching for those signs of Avian influenza.

Call the Iowa department of agriculture if you have any suspicion that your birds are being impacted, and we can help arrange the testing to confirm that.

- Iowa's taking emergency action in regards to this.

And one of the things is that you are prohibiting sales, displays of poultry even at county fair levels for the next 30 days though.

And as you know, a lot of the county fairs start after the next 30 days.

So are you pretty confident that county fairs will be able to have poultry exhibitions and judging or is it just too early to tell?

- It really is too early to tell from the sense that, we know that the virus is being carried by the wild bird population.

So as birds are migrating north all throughout the spring, they are appearing to be carrying the virus with them.

And that's where we're seeing these introductions, wild birds and domestic birds interacting.

And so really we have to look ahead and think all throughout the spring season as birds are moving north, this remains a significant threat.

But what we did is we said, in order to protect birds, again, of flocks of all sizes, that it's important to prohibit these live exhibitions, these shows and we're gonna do that for at least 30 days.

And then we're gonna reset the clock every time we have a confirmed case.

So we'll go 30 days past the last confirmed case in the state of Iowa is when we would expect to be able to start having shows again.

So I'm really hopeful that we can in fact, have those shows at county fairs, but only time will tell.

And we certainly hope, and that's why we're acting quickly to identify and contain this virus to try to prevent the spread.

- Well, the real problem like you said, is migratory birds can just continue the process of spreading Avian flu.

So do you believe in realistic terms that the situation might get worse before it gets better?

- Unfortunately, that could be the case.

What we've seen, and if you look across the country that this started on the east coast and it it's been moving into the Mississippi flyway.

And again, it continues to be with very few exceptions that these are independent wild bird introductions that are kind of sporadic as you look at the map.

And what we are really trying to prevent is that spread between farms, between buildings.

And that's why it's important to act quickly.

So again, time will tell.

It really has a lot to do with the weather and how quickly does it warm up and how quickly do those birds move on to further north.

And those are all the types of dynamics that we're looking at, but I wanna stress this too.

The industry, the producers, the farmers are doing, and they've made a lot of improvements to their biosecurity.

We meaning, try to keep what's outside outside, and what's inside inside and prevent the connection of the two.

And that that's the most important thing, the best line of defense that we have.

Again, whether big or small, is to watch that biosecurity.

- We talked to one farmer who says, this is like the third time they've gone through some type of outbreak in Iowa.

Is this something that is becoming more common?

- Foreign animal diseases are always a risk.

It's always a threat.

And that's why it's important to always be, have a mindset of preparedness and to be always be trying to prevent the spread and always be focused on biosecurity.

I wouldn't say it's happening more.

But it's true that High Path has been around last in Iowa in '15, but it's been in other parts of the country since then.

And of course, we also think a lot about African swine fever which is now in the Dominican Republic at Haiti.

So it's in the Western hemisphere for the first time since 1980.

So our pork producers are also thinking about biosecurity and keeping that disease out of the country and off of their farms.

- Well, and the hog farmers already had faced some serious issues in the last few years.

You don't wanna see that particular area of the agriculture industry impacted as well.

- That's right.

And livestock producers are dealing with disease on a daily basis.

It's something that's the reality of production.

But these specific diseases, again, African swine fever, foot and mouth disease, High Path, these are things that are additional, that cause those trade disruptions and are very, very devastating.

So they are a different class of diseases that folks are really needing to be vigilant in their biosecurity.

And we then are also working with USDA on the response side of things.

- Let's talk about the war in Ukraine.

It is having a huge impact worldwide, of course, European countries, it depends so much more on exports or imports to, or exports from Ukraine into their countries.

But what is the impact you're seeing of the Ukraine war in Iowa impacting farmers?

- Well, and it may surprise folks to know that there is an impact, right?

But remember that agriculture is, it's a global supply chain.

And so one, we rely on export markets.

Iowa is number two in the United States in terms of the value of our food and agriculture exports.

We're second only to California.

So when global trade is disrupted, that certainly impacts us.

When trade is working well, that benefits us.

But we also rely on other countries and other markets for the inputs that we need.

The crop protection tools, the fertilizer that's important to crop production.

And so we are definitely being impacted by both that inflow of fertilizer in particular, but also Ukraine is a significant grain producer and corn exporter in particular.

And it's an absolute human tragedy what's happening with Russia invading and being so destructive in the Ukraine.

And my thoughts and prayers are with everyone involved in this and I hope for a resolution to this.

But it is absolutely impacting the agriculture supply chain broadly.

- And for a long period of time, I mean, the devastation, you think of a war going on in a country, in rural areas, there could be shrapnel in the field.

There could be unexploded ordinance in the field, besides even tanks driving over your wheat, your corn crops in Ukraine.

Even if the war were to end tomorrow, agriculture would suffer for months on end.

- There's a lot of analysis being done right now on one, so it's a wheat producing region.

And so you've got the winter wheat crop that's coming and can they get another application of fertilizer on that crop before they harvest?

Will they even have the equipment or the fuel to harvest that wheat crop.

And then of course, for corn production.

Similar climate, similar timeframe to get a crop in the ground as we do here in the corn build in United States.

And again, if you've got the seed and the fertilizer that you need, do you have the fuel, do you have the equipment?

And frankly, is there safety and security that you can even get to the field?

So a lot of questions around how much, how productive can that region be.

And then add on to that the idea that can they even export what they can harvest because of the disruption.

Again, it's a tragic situation.

And unfortunately, it could very well cause shortages of some very important commodities around the world.

- In Iowa, we're seeing some tax changes as you well know the flat tax perhaps coming next year, a lot of people have talked about that of course.

A lot of people talk about the retirement tax that is eliminated in Iowa effective immediately.

Not a lot of people have talked about tax changes that are gonna impact farmers.

Tell me a little bit about what's changing and how farmers should be preparing for that right now.

- Well, look, this tax package, it was significant.

It's bold, it's exactly the kind of thing that we should be looking at in terms of a state that has a strong financial health and a growing economy, right?

So then we can look at things like, how do we become more competitive?

One of our greatest challenges is that from a workforce standpoint, we need more Iowas.

We need more people moving to this state.

We've got an opportunity for our farms and our families and our communities and our businesses to thrive and grow.

So a simplified, a lower tax rate, those are all things that are good for Iowa's competitiveness and good for our families, regardless of whether you farm or not.

And so those are important things.

And of course the retirement income and exempting retirement income, especially around land related or farm land rental related income.

That I think will also help again, keep Iowans in Iowa and help us to be more competitive.

So look, this is good for agriculture, but it's good for Iowa families and Iowa businesses across the board.

- We've talked a lot about climate change this week on News Eight.

And so we've been talking about how it impacts farmers with changing growing season.

More micro-bursts of rain, more devastating wind storms.

Is there a plan from Iowa department of agriculture in regards to climate change and how to better deal with the severe weather that Iowa farmers and actually all farmers in the Midwest are now facing?

- I think the thing to think about when it comes to weather and we are seeing larger rain events in the shoulder seasons, Spring and Fall.

And so that's why we think about things like using no-till and incorporating cover crops into our operations.

Trying to get cover on the ground when a crop is not growing and you can then hold your soil in place and also improve water quality.

Those are the types of practices that have frankly, layers of benefits, nutrient reduction, soil erosion prevention, building soil health.

Those are all important things that have many, many benefits.

So, those are the types of things that we're looking at is how do we continue to build resiliency into our agriculture and particularly into our land use.

But, I also would note that we've got a long history in this state of innovation, right?

We're always trying to do it better.

Every year, we're trying to grow a crop more efficiently, grow more yield, do a better job with our livestock.

And that won't change.

That continuous improvement is something that we're focused on.

And so weather, climate and the changes that we potentially are seeing are all part of that, continuing to think about resiliency of agriculture.

And we've got a lot of history of doing that.

I'm confident we'll be able to adjust to the future as well.

- I think it's interesting that you did point out the high tech changes that are going on of course, throughout the industry.

And that includes, of course, John Deere.

Deere having that huge plant in Waterloo based of course, in the Quad cities, Mr. Secretary.

I'm telling you nothing that you don't already know.

What is kind of exciting is Deere has introduced a driverless tractor and you're talking about high tech.

It was interesting, I was listening to a discussion on one of the business channels that they were saying that this could really be revolutionary for farming.

- Well, this is one of the best parts about agriculture is the constant change.

We always say, the only thing that's constant in agriculture is change.

And so, again, we know that efficiency and especially around trying to accommodate for some of our workforce challenges, autonomous vehicles, digital agriculture, precision agriculture, and that's not just in the cropping space, but also in livestock and in processing.

These are tremendous opportunities.

And it takes, I mentioned too that the last growing season, we had significant drought across the state of Iowa.

And yet, we set records in the state of Iowa for our corn and soybean yield.

That's not an accident.

That happens because of innovation, that happens because of how we manage the crop, how it's planted, how it's fed, how it's cared for.

And that's a special thing.

And that's something we shouldn't take for granted.

Innovation is a key component to our success into the future.

The equipment piece of it is just one of those things that's really exciting.

- Iowa agriculture secretary, Michael Naig.

In a moment, new statewide attention to what's called the Bison Bridge.

But first, welcome to the start of April and all things Spring.

It should help you go out and about a little bit more.

So here's Lora Adams.

- [Lora] This is Out and About for April 1st through 7th.

"Let Me Be Myself: The Life Story of Anne Frank", a traveling exhibit takes place at St. Ambrose's University's Lewis boardroom through the second.

While the Figge art museum present the film, "Three Minutes- A Lengthening" April 3rd at four.

Bishop Hill hosts a performance by Claude Bourbon, "Spanish and Medieval Blues", the 3rd at seven.

And Jarabe Mexicano perform at the Rock Island Library and Butterworth Center, April 5th.

Quad Cities Comic Con takes over the Mississippi Valley Fair grounds, the 2nd and 3rd, and Matt Maher performs at the Adler Theater, the 5th at seven.

Quad City Coin Club's annual spring coin show takes place the 3rd at the Camden Center in Milan.

Plus there's a girl's getaway in Downtown Muscatine, the 2nd starting at 8:30 AM.

The German American Heritage Center hosts their Spring Craft Fair the 2nd from 10 to two.

And on stage The Black Box Theater open the psychological thriller "Veronica's Room" by Ira Levin, April 7th through 16th.

The zany Peter and the Starcatcher takes over stage at Spotlight on April 1st through 9th.

Quad City Music Guild presents, "Disaster, The 70's Movie Musical", the 1st through the 10th.

Live from QC, it's "Saturday Nite", a fundraiser for Gilda's Club present SNL icon, Tim Meadows, the 2nd at Rhythm City Casino.

And the Quad City Symphony Masterworks perform at the Adler, the 2nd.

For more information, visit wqpt.org.

(upbeat music) - Thank you, Lora.

It came as quite a surprise when well known conservationist, Chad Pregracke took the stage to announce something quite strange.

He wanted to find supporters of his plan for what's called a Bison Bridge.

With transportation officials making advanced plans for a new Interstate 80 bridge over the Mississippi River.

Pregracke wanted to keep one span of the existing bridge and turn it into this.

A bridge that incorporates both concrete for bicyclists and runners and natural plantings that would be for wildlife, including wait for it, perhaps bison, hence the Bison Bridge.

The so-called Bison Bridge has just won support from an Illinois house committee that voted to urge the transportation department to include bison Bridge Plans in its plans for the new I-80 span.

So we talk with consultant Matthew Hughes of the Bison Bridge Foundation, who is in his Springfield office.

You did receive some really important backing.

I mean your list of backers for this project included, let's be honest, a lot of tourism groups, you got state lawmakers in the area that are backing it.

Are you surprised of that level of support and actually how important is that?

- Well, it's very important.

I'm not surprised, as we have engaged with the community and stakeholders and public officials and business owners and just Quad citizens in general, I mean, there's a tremendous amount of support.

It took a lot of work to reach out and engage with people that have indicated they do support the project and would like to help in whatever way they can.

So I, we've had support from all walks of life, so I'm not surprised that we had it.

I'm very impressed and I'm very happy with what occurred as far as the proponents list for our resolution.

We had the University of Illinois, Western Illinois University, the Illinois Environmental Council.

As you pointed out all our several convention and visitors bureaus throughout the state, citizens in general, business owners.

It's, I mean, this is why we are doing what we're doing is we wanna quantify and show to the state decision makers that this thing has legs.

This thing can be done, and the community overwhelmingly supports it as well as the elected officials at the state local and federal level.

Everybody's been very helpful, very supportive and we've included input and ideas throughout the course of the last two years as we met with people into our proposal.

And we're just, we're happy with the way it's going.

- Have you won over a skeptical public?

I mean, I think some people first heard Bison Bridge, are they crazy?

- Well, I think that was my reaction when I first got a phone call from my friend Chad, that you're crazy, I don't know that this is gonna happen.

These are engineers, they're people that typically they wanna tear this down.

But as far as what the public is feeling, the public is skeptical.

I think it's mostly just a general malaise so to speak.

I think they're skeptical as to whether the state government will actually respond or incorporate the public's I guess, desire to have this.

I think that's in general, the skepticism I heard.

Of course, when you heard bison, will they walk across it, things like that, we've answered that question.

We've hired a bison expert that manages a bison tribe for the Eastern Shoshone Tribe.

And we've been very, I guess, deliberate about the team members we've chosen to help us with this.

Because frankly, Chad and I do what we do.

Kevin's an engineer, we've got of a convention and visitors bureau tourism expert.

So we've been very careful in terms of putting the team together and executing a plan.

And we've spent the last year and a half coming up with that plan.

We know that we've got a significant challenge ahead of us to get this done, but I think the public, if they do invest in us, they oughta know that we're doing our part, Chad's expended significant resources for this thing.

And we've got a lot of things that we're about to start talking about publicly as we move through this process here.

- The key I think for you guys is that you wanna start early because as you know the I-74 Bridge, replaces the old I-74 Bridge.

And some people want to save that and almost create, almost like a Chicago Navy pier off of one of the spans.

But it just, it sounds like it just came too late and demolition is gonna go forward.

You're kind of learning a lesson from that.

I mean, you're working very ahead of schedule here.

As the plans are just being developed for the new I-80 Bridge.

- The timing of our efforts were remarkably, I wouldn't say, lucky I guess is the word.

But the reality is yes, that example of the I-74 efforts, by the time they engaged and I mean, it was a great idea, but I think it just came too late in a decision making process.

And by hook or by crook, when Chad called me, I just happened to engage with the department and they had undertaken, they had begun the process of undertaking this.

So the timing was about the only luck we've had so far.

I mean, the rest of it's basically a product of just people putting their head down and using their expertise to sort of move this thing forward.

- And looking for inspiration.

I mean, let's be honest, this is a very unusual project.

Where do you draw inspiration from?

I mean, are there other projects even remotely like this?

- Well, that's one of the things that we address.

I mean, this has been done before, it's been done in Louisville, it's been done in Cincinnati.

The Chicago River Walk is an example of repurposing infrastructure.

New York city is doing this a bunch right now with Old Train Station.

The problem we have is it just hasn't been done in the Midwest at this scale.

If we're successful and we get this done, it'll be the longest wildlife crossing in the world.

So getting a group of engineering technocrats to incorporate something this outside the box is definitely a heavy lift and we've got our challenges ahead of us.

But I think we're prepared and we've got a very good case to make and we've done our homework.

- Well, and I think you believe that if this does actually become reality, it is going to be a major draw for the Quad City area.

- Well, I think it's transformative in nature.

And I think, part of what, I mean, one of the questions that had come to me from you guys was, why am I doing this, where I'm from.

The Quad City is, I grew up there, have all kinds of friends there, do some business up there, parents live there, brother lives there.

I care about the place, I wanna see it improve.

And we hear a lot from leaders at the state and federal level and all over the place about placemaking.

I mean, we're emerging from some very challenging times and we've sort of retooled how we look at quality of life issues and placemaking's become a big, hot button word that's used in lexicon these days.

And this is a, I mean, this is just an example of how this would fit into that box very well.

- If this were to be realized, what kind of timeline do you see?

Because it all depends upon, in the DOT and rebuilding a new I-80 Bridge.

- Well, the fact of the matter is I learned today from a conversation that Representative Halpin had with IDOT district two that we can expect a public meeting in May.

So timeline-wise, I mean, that's good for us.

We've kicked this thing off with this resolution, expected to pass next week.

We'll start engaging with our followers and our supporters and elected officials.

I mean, we've gotta play, we've got an offensive playbook to run here and we've gotta get engaged fast.

And honestly, as smart as, and the amount of that expertise we've got on our team, it'll all be for not if the public doesn't engage with the state to make this happen in May.

- And do you think there's what, a better than 50, 50 chance this could occur?

- I hate to put, I'm not a handicapper when it comes to these things.

We've got significant challenges that can be overcome.

The biggest hurdle we have right now is the only department of transportation.

I don't mean that in any ill, from any negative place, that's just, we've gotta convince them that the support we have is strong, significant, and engaged, and ready to activate to say, "Hey, we want this to happen."

And so, I spent 10 years of my life working with the Illinois Department of Transportation.

I make a living consulting on transportation and infrastructure financing.

We've got an expert group of people trying to push this heavy boulder up a hill.

But our opportunity is within site now.

And that's why we're doing what we're doing and that's why you saw a resolution that's moving through the house.

We've got federal partners that are gonna help us with this as well.

And we're just getting started.

- Matthew Hughes of the Bison Bridge Foundation.

On the air, on the radio, on the web, on your mobile device and streaming on your computer, thanks for taking some time to join us as we talk about the issues on The Cities.

(bright upbeat music) - [Female Advertiser] Wheelan Presley Funeral Home and Crematory, a proud supporter of WQPT has been serving Quad City families since 1889.

They now have livestream capabilities for viewing your loved one's funeral or memorial service.

- [Male Advertiser] At IHMVCU, we've always been here for you.

You are and always will be our top priority.

We care about your financial and physical health, and we are here.

IHMVCU is a proud supporter of WQPT.