The Poweshiek Skipper Project
Lake Hawthorne ©Rayford Ratcliff

Introduction
Home

Information about the butterfly

 

O. poweshiek, Legacy butterfly
Original description p. 1
Original description p. 2

Legacy of the prairie

Legacy of Chief Poweshiek
Legacy of H. W. Parker
Legacy of the natural world

 

H.W. Parker's writings

The Iceberg

The New Planet

The Removal

Von Blixum's Heroic Experiment

 

Iowa's biological diversity
Introduction

Vascular plants

Bryophytes

Fungi

Lichens

Monera

Protozoans

Mammals

Birds

Reptiles

Amphibians

Fish

Simple invertebrates

Aquatic snails

Terrestrial snails

Butterflies

Moths

Odonates

Flies

Beetles

Springtails

Other insects

Crustaceans

Crayfish

Scorpions

Other groups

 

The Poweshiek Skipper Project

Goals of the project
History of the Project
Proposed group

News

 

Fish

Fish are well studied in Iowa, and there is a large amount of information available.  The Iowa GAP Analysis project, http://www.gis.iastate.edu/gap/ is a project that is a cooperative effort of several agencies (mostly governmental).  This project seeks to map and compile information about all of the vertebrate species in Iowa, and they have produced an excellent web site called the Iowa Aquatic Gap Fish Atlas:  http://maps.gis.iastate.edu/iris/fishatlas/  This web site lists 157 species of fish found in Iowa and shows range maps and photographs of all of them.

Unfortunately, from a biological diversity standpoint fish are not doing all that well.  And it is not really surprising.  If we don't drain a wetland or waterway we usually put a dam on it to increase the water level.  We have been very careless about letting pollution into the water ways. 

I am not aware of  any amateurs working with native fishes from a biological diversity standpoint (i.e., non-game wildlife) in Iowa, but there may be some.