ARMSTRONG — Two neighboring public areas along the Iowa-Minnesota border offer visitors a chance to fish, hunt, camp, paddle and explore a landscape resembling the prairie encountered by Iowa’s earliest settlers.
Lake Iowa and Lake Iowa Marsh are located north of Armstrong along Iowa Highway 15. Although the two public areas are nearly identical in shape and size, they are separate water systems with distinctly different habitats.
“You can make a day of it out here — fish the lake, hunt pheasants, deer or ducks, paddle the lake or marsh — just enjoy the day,” said Lucas Straw, a wildlife biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ Prairie Lakes-Ingham Wildlife office.
The 823-acre natural lake includes a small campground on its southern end. Visitors also have access to a boat ramp, courtesy dock and fish-cleaning station.
The land south and west of the lake remains a work in progress as DNR staff target invasive plants and encourage remnants of native prairie to return.
Straw said the area provides good deer hunting, although reaching some sections can be challenging because of thick vegetation and difficult terrain.
The DNR is working with Drew Howing of nearby Iowa Lakes Community College to identify invasive honeysuckle. Howing is using a drone to map affected areas so crews can conduct targeted treatments.
The partnership is advancing the state’s habitat-management goals while giving Iowa Lakes students hands-on experience in the field.
DNR staff are also working with a local producer participating in Iowa’s beginning-farmer program. The producer is helping complete conservation work in rough, poorly drained and oddly shaped fields that can be difficult to reach with equipment.
A public-private wetland restoration project is scheduled to begin this fall on the southwestern corner of the Iowa Lake complex.
The project, led by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, will permanently flood eight acres and create a larger flood zone covering approximately 12 to 15 acres.
Once completed, the wetland will help filter runoff from 1,557 acres of the Iowa Lake watershed before the water reaches the lake.
Similar partnerships and restoration methods are being used across Iowa. In July, NorthIowaToday.com reported on the DNR’s work to restore prairie and create a 17-mile wildlife corridor near Lake Rathbun.
Little Iowa Lake, a roughly 100-acre marsh on the southwestern corner of the main lake, presents another conservation challenge.
Water enters the main lake through Little Iowa Lake, where invasive rough fish have damaged water quality by stirring nutrients from the bottom and uprooting aquatic vegetation.
The DNR installed a rock reef in 2024 in an attempt to prevent carp from entering the marsh. The project initially worked as intended, with aquatic plants returning and the water becoming clearer.
The improvement was temporary. Carp eventually returned, and water quality declined again.
“We’re working with local DNR Fisheries Bureau staff to determine what the next steps are to make it a healthy marsh again,” Straw said.
Carp removal and water-level management have also been employed at other Northern Iowa wetlands. At the Dugout Creek-Yager Slough wildlife complex in Dickinson County, managers lowered a 90-acre wetland to eliminate carp and help restore vegetation and wildlife habitat.
Along Lake Iowa’s shoreline, oak trees stretch around portions of the lake while homes occupy sections of the eastern and western shoreline.
DNR staff eventually hope to conduct timber-stand improvement work to benefit the oaks, but thick vegetation has made accessing the trees difficult.
Fishing remains a major attraction. During a recent DNR visit, a fisherman arrived at the cleaning station with a stringer of catfish and reported that the fishing had been good.
Immediately east of the lake is Lake Iowa Marsh. Unlike Little Iowa Lake, the larger marsh is an entirely separate system from Lake Iowa.
The lake’s outlet flows east while the marsh’s outlet flows north. Water from the two systems eventually joins before flowing into Burt Lake.
Lake Iowa Marsh contains rolling wetlands and prairie that may resemble the landscape settlers encountered while crossing Iowa generations ago.
DNR crews conducted a prescribed burn on a portion of the marsh and remnant prairie this spring. By mid-July, the area was producing sawtooth sunflower, sedges, showy goldenrod, common milkweed, Canada milkvetch, stiff goldenrod, blazing star, gray-headed coneflower and wild bergamot.
The prairie is scheduled to undergo a formal plant inventory this year.
Staff began converting old grasslands at the marsh into diverse prairie in 2024, beginning with 25 acres. Another 40 acres are scheduled for conversion next year.
“We will manage it with fire and then pull the woody shrubs and trees in the early spring, before nesting season,” Straw said.
The continued restoration is expected to improve habitat while preserving a public area where visitors can experience fishing, hunting, paddling, camping and a surviving piece of Iowa’s original prairie landscape.
(TOP PHOTO: Iowa Lake Marsh is a rolling wetland, prairie complex that might look similar to what the settlers encountered on their journey across the prairie. Photo courtesy of the Iowa DNR.)