If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you give a man a bicycle, teach him how to keep it in tip-top shape, and advocate for there to be safe spaces for him to ride, you’re a bike collective. Iowa’s bike collectives are nonprofit community programs that focus on […]
Recreation
Posted inRecreation
Like all of us, ‘birds suffer from lack of being seen.’ Good thing Iowa has a century-old bird club.
Founded in 1923, the Iowa Ornithologists’ Union (IOU) has endured for a century as one of Iowa’s most prominent organizations dedicated to avian wildlife. Through organizing field trips to participating in the Christmas Bird Count to partnerships with the Iowa Audubon and Iowa Young Birders, the IOU wants people to care about birds. “I’m not […]
Posted inRecreation
Iowa is a disc golf capitol of the U.S., with 363 courses across some of the state’s best parks
What sport do you associate with the state of Iowa? Wrestling? Basketball? Football? Disc golf probably didn’t come to mind, but the Hawkeye State has a long, storied history with the target sport. According to UDisc, the sport’s most popular scorekeeping and course directory app (founded by two Iowa State University students), Iowa currently has […]
Posted inRecreation
Behind the handlebars: Eight styles of bicycle and what they do best
So you’re ready to hit the trail and feel the summery breeze on your face. What pair of wheels is right for you? Drew Boss, lead mechanic at the Iowa City Bike Library, broke down eight types of bicycle he’s fixed up over the years for a quick guide to common bikes. Illustrations by Jordan […]
Posted inCommunity/News
‘Teach someone to love something and they’ll take care of it’: Paddle Fest wants more people, fewer fish floating in Iowa waterways
Everything in nature is connected, including us. Humans have been struggling with this concept since Alexander von Humboldt, in the mid-19th century and somewhat radically for the time, suggested that all of nature is an interconnected ecosystem. Even if this idea may seem obvious to us in the 21st century, we still struggle with it, […]
Posted inCommunity/News
When the Saints went marching through southern Iowa
Long before I-80 cut a clear path through the state — and before any asphalt, rubber tires, railways or virtually any infrastructure existed to aid westward travelers — crossing the roughly 310 miles between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers was a long, arduous journey. The native landscape, wildlife and bacteria familiar to generations of indigenous […]
Posted inRecreation
Contact Buzz: Recreation is renewal
“A period recourse into the wilds is not a retreat into secret silent sanctums to escape a wicked world, it is to take breath amid effort to forge a better world.”—Benton MacKaye (1879-1975), American forester, planner and conservationist “The intellect must not be kept at consistent tension, but diverted by pastimes…The mind must have relaxation, […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Legendary pro skater, punk rocker and Des Moines local Mike Vallely is living his teenage dream
Growing up in New Jersey in the 1970s and ’80s, Mike Vallely was, of course, aware of skateboarding. But it didn’t seem approachable. Popular culture presented it as something made for Californians with nice tans and well-built bodies who wanted to show off and do handstands on their boards. So Vallely didn’t pay it much […]
Posted inCommunity/News
‘Suspicious fire’ damages Iowa’s largest sycamore; Gov. Reynolds’ opposition to CAFO rules threatens waterways
Iowa’s largest sycamore tree, which is located in a state park near Burlington, was severely damaged by a “suspicious fire,” the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) said in a news release on Thursday. It’s not known if the tree, estimated to be about 350 years old, will survive. According to the DNR, a visitor […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Anyone can Catan at an upcoming tournament in Cedar Rapids, the result of a geeky cross-state collaboration
Less abstract than chess, but more complex than Scrabble, Eurogames — which came to prominence in the late ’70s and early ’80s in Germany and quickly spread across Europe — offer players multiple paths to victory and more intricate strategy and tactics. Leading the charge of this stylistic expansion stateside was Klaus Teuber’s 1995 release […]
Posted inRecreation
‘Escarp’ to Brush Creek Canyon, a wild nature preserve in Fayette County
Brush Creek Canyon is one of 95 preserves that protect natural, geological, archeological or historical sites in Iowa. They are often minimally maintained, which only adds to their charm. A 217-acre preserve located in Fayette County, near the town of Arlington, Brush Creek Canyon State Preserve is announced by a modest sign on a telephone […]
Posted inCentral Iowa, Recreation
Descend into Yellow Banks Park, 576 acres of ancient history
Tucked along a panoramic stretch of the Des Moines River in southeast Polk County is a park that feels many miles away from the state’s largest metro area. Buffered from the usual traffic sounds by dense woods and isolated stretches of natural landscape, Yellow Banks Park exudes an almost zen-like allure, with 150-foot high yellow-colored […]
