Greene County Conservation turned what was a bleak situation at one of its Raccoon River access points into a positive, with help from federal and state entities.  

Greene County Conservation Director Dan Towers says a new public fishing area is along the Raccoon River, with the Highway 30 river access that is located near the county gravel pit past the bridge on Highway 30, west of Jefferson.

“This was a FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Administration) funded project, as result of the McMahon Access boat ramp that’s downstream from Highway 30. It was damaged significantly in the 2019 flood and the river has changed so much I think we’re going to have a hard time maintaining that ramp. So FEMA let us move the location of the ramp two miles upstream to this location. It gives you access to part of the river that people didn’t utilize much before.”

Towers points out with help from the Greene County Secondary Roads Department, there’s more features than just fishing at this newest river access location.

“There’s some sitting stones, a sidewalk that gets you down to a lower level with a nice limestone walking (trail that) you can sit and look at the river. So it really turned into more of a park than just a boat ramp.”

Majority of the funding for the project came from FEMA and Towers points out they had to work with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources as well.