(Iowa Capital Dispatch) A class of seniors at Dordt University are putting their education and skills to use for community needs, working with the City of Rock Valley to transform areas previously devastated by record-breaking flooding.
Beatrice Shackelford, an environmental studies student in her last semester at Dordt before heading to Yale University to continue her education, was working at the Sioux Center university in summer 2024 when flooding hit the area. While she volunteered in Spencer to help with cleanup, others were in Rock Valley trying to assess the damage to areas of town that saw the worst flooding.
Now, close to two years later, the City of Rock Valley is awaiting final approval of a FEMA buyout for properties that need to be torn down near the Rock River. However, the city has turned to its nearby private university for help in deciding what comes after the properties are torn down.
“All of those homes are still up in kind of the main entrance into town, so I think it’s still very much an everyday part of their lives, in a way that people don’t realize on the outside,” Shackelford said. “So I think this opportunity and these plans are kind of the next potential step into Rock Valley moving beyond this event in a way that is hopeful and resilient and optimistic of the future.”
Students in the Dordt University Restoration Ecology and Applied Stewardship course had their pick of a few different projects, course professor Robb De Haan said, but selected the Rock Valley restoration despite concerns of it being “a little too important to the community” for them to take on.
However, Shackelford and fellow senior and student in the class Emily Eppinga said the biggest feeling they had for choosing this project was excitement. Many students in the course come from outside of the state, Shackelford said, and they’ve been “blessed” to be supported by the surrounding community and wanted to take this on while being respectful of the people impacted by the flooding.
Eppinga, a Sioux Center native, said she hoped that this would be the project selected by the class. She said her grandparents live in Rock Valley, and seeing the damage was “crazy and very sad.”
“I think (the project is) going to have a really big impact on the community, and it’s something that everyone is looking forward to,” Eppinga said.
The class is in the process of creating a draft plan to introduce to community members in late April, with feedback from the community having been collected through surveys and in-person discussions with students.
Short prairie grasses are planned for planting at the entrance to the area, Shackelford said, with a transition into long prairie plants further in. “Natural areas” proposed for the project include pollinator gardens and habitat zones for local wildlife alongside recreation spots like a potential new soccer field, though nets would have to be taken down every night. The area will also tie together local trail systems.
Shackelford said the goal of the class is to create “easy to maintain, beautiful natural areas that will be more resilient in future flooding events.”
People have been very interested in this project, De Haan said, with more than 500 responses to the online survey and good participation in providing feedback in person. There are “very specific limitations” to this project due to FEMA’s buyout of the properties and its floodplain location, De Haan said, but beyond the fact that no structures that could hold water are allowed beyond restrooms, they haven’t run into big issues.
“Thankfully, the community’s interest in natural areas aligns really well already with FEMA regulations,” Shackelford said.
More community feedback will be sought after a presentation of the draft plan has been created, De Haan said, which students will use to update the project before giving a final paper plan to the city for consideration in May. From there. the city will be able to make any needed adjustments, he said.
While the course doesn’t carry the students to the actual implementation of their plan, Shackelford and Eppinga said they hope the work they’ve done will lead to Rock Valley housing a beautiful, natural space for both residents and visitors to the community to access.
“I hope to envision a community that gets to really enjoy this picture of both resilience and beauty in the form of a restored floodplain,” Shackelford said.
Dordt University professor Robb De Haan and students are working with the City of Rock Valley to create plans for areas impacted by 2024 flooding. (Photo courtesy of Dordt University)
