Grant Wood Loop - Parks to People

OVERVIEW

The Grant Wood Loop encompasses Dubuque, Jackson, and Jones Counties with a population of just under 140,000. Our natural resources and thriving arts and culture community provide a perfect canvas for investing in our people, parks, and future. These places offer the kind of experience that give residents and visitors alike the opportunity to connect with the outdoors, to friends and family, and create forever memories.

The Grant Wood Loop is a rarity, boasting carved river valleys, majestic limestone bluffs and rolling hills historically dominated by prairie and timber. This diverse terrain gave birth to a region of rivers. The Mississippi, Maquoketa and Wapsipinicon Rivers dominate the landscape. Today, the ancient natural formations exist side by side with modern agriculture and river towns. The region boasts a wealth of assets and opportunities for a collaborative effort to connect parks to people and places: unique and ancient land formations, 4,390 miles of waterways, four state parks and numerous county parks totaling almost 7,000 acres of parkland, and innumerable cultural and arts events. These idyllic landscapes were the inspiration for many of Grant Wood's greatest works, and are the inspiration for the projects outlined in the Grant Wood Loop 20-Year Master Plan.

Through extensive stakeholder and public input, The Grant Wood Loop Master Plan has come together to identify the mission of the Parks to People initiative, the vision for the future of the region, strategic goals to guide our work, and priority projects to complete by year end 2018.

HISTORY

In September 2014, the State of Iowa selected Jackson, Jones, and Dubuque Counties to serve as the pilot region for the Parks to People Initiative - a program created by the Governor's Green Ribbon Commission - which aims to create a long-term, sustainable strategy to revitalize Iowa State Parks in connection with their surrounding regions. As the pilot program, The Grant Wood Mississippi River Region (GWMRR) was the only region to receive an implementation award - $1.9 million allocated by the legislature to the Iowa Parks Foundation for parks infrastructure projects.

Backed by this award, and with the support of the Governor, Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the Iowa Parks Foundation, the three counties formed the GWMRR partnership, made up of diverse stakeholders from the region, who are identified on page 11 of this document. This collaboration is working together to "enhance, promote, sustain, and connect" the region's cultural, natural and park assets.

The partnership selected a Board of Directors of volunteer stakeholders working diligently to plan and leverage funding for recreation, natural resources, and cultural projects in all three counties that will benefit the entire region. A strategic planning process vetted through seven public input sessions, that generated over 460 comments, identified four Priority Initiatives:

"MAQUOKETA RIVER ON THE MOVE" - Improving access to and habitat along the Maquoketa River;
"MISSISSIPPI CIRCUIT" - Developing water and land trails and enhancing amenities between Dubuque and Bellevue;
"CROSSING THE WAPSI" - Improving connections between Anamosa and Wapsipinicon State Park;
"PRAIRIE CREEK CONNECTIONS" - Linking important natural and recreational resources near Maquoketa, including the Prairie Creek Recreation Area, Hurstville Interpretive Center and Maquoketa Caves State Park;

The GWMRR volunteers have worked hard over to come up with an aggressive, yet achievable plan to enhance the region's park and cultural resources. As part of the Parks to People award, the IPF is requiring the region to match the $1.9 million in funding at a 5:1 rate and to complete all projects by end of 2018. To date the Board has identified and prioritized nearly $58 million in potential projects, and secured funding for $55 million of these project. While we are actively seeking match from local governments and writing grants to support the projects, the success of these initiatives requires private support as well.

The positive impacts generated by increased tourism, improved quality of life, stewardship of natural resources, encouragement of healthy lifestyles, and connection to each other will be numerous and long-standing. Completion of these projects is extremely important work that we are asking our generous citizens, businesses, and foundations to join us in bringing to reality.