The Iowa Learning Center's Conservation Station will travel the state teaching about different aspects of conservation. Iowans can benefit from the station's lessons on the importance of preserving the soil and improving water quality.

AMES – Conservation is hitting the road.

The Iowa Learning Farm is traveling across Iowa with the new Conservation Station, a mobile learning center that encourages all Iowans to help protect and improve soil and water quality.

The ILF team is excited to take the farm on the road and inspire others to help build a Culture of Conservation.

The big, blue trailer will be at field days, county fairs, farmers’ markets and student educational outings all over Iowa this summer and fall.

Through demonstrations, pictures, computer animations, three dimensional interactive displays, video and sound, people of all ages can learn why Iowa’s water and soils are valuable and how they can help preserve and protect these natural resources.

Visitors can see the Conservation Station for free and will learn about soil, water, crop residue, prairies and wetlands. It also has a rainfall simulator, demonstrating the affects of rainfall on the land, collecting surface water runoff and subsurface drainage.

The Conservation Station made its first stop on May 20 at Ada Hayden Park in north Ames.

The Conservation Station will be at numerous events around Iowa this summer and fall.

Readers can visit the Iowa Learning Farm web site for a listing of events, which are added regularly at: www.extension.iastate.edu/ilf.

To request the Conservation Station for an event, call (515) 294-5429 or e-mail: ilf@iastate.edu.

The Iowa Learning Farm is a partnership between the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Iowa State University Extension, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Iowa Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Iowa Department of Natural Resources; in cooperation with Conservation Districts of Iowa and the Iowa Farm Bureau.