Iowa’s newest wildlife area, Bell Branch, is open for visitors in Davis County

Staff from the Sugema Wildlife Unit finished placing the Bell Branch Wildlife Area sign at the recently installed parking lot, just in time for the 2024 hunting seasons.

This newly acquired 514-acre public wildlife area in northern Davis County is roughly 350 acres of high-quality oak hickory timber with 85 acres on the south end enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). The rest is pasture.

“Having a new area of this size is pretty exciting. It will take some work, but it will be fun to watch it transition into the wildlife area that we want it to be,” said Jeff Glaw, wildlife biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. “We are excited to get the forest wildlife stewardship and management plan in place and get to work. The CRP contract expires next year when we can begin managing it to eliminate the invasive Reed canary grass and begin work to converting CRP to prairie.”

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Access points are currently limited to one parking lot on the southeast side. Old farm lanes will be used as firebreaks and can be used to navigate the rolling and rugged southern Iowa terrain. Several fishable ponds on site could also be a good spot for wood ducks.

The location of Bell Branch in southern Iowa offered an excellent opportunity to enhance the oak hickory habitat to benefit Indiana and Northern long-eared bats, both federally endangered species and restore the prairie.

The Iowa DNR purchased the land from the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation for a bargain sale price of $1.9 million, using a special federal funding source to support endangered species for bat habitat restoration. It had been appraised for $2.31 million. The DNR will continue to pay property taxes on Bell Branch Wildlife Area.

Bell Branch is adjacent to a 413-acre parcel to the north that is enrolled in the Iowa Habitat and Access Program (IHAP). The two combined areas total nearly 1,000 acres for public use.

The IHAP section remains in private ownership by the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation who is implementing its forest stewardship plan to improve the timbered resource to benefit wildlife. The area is open from Sept. 1 to May 31 each year, and only for hunting – other activities, like fishing or trapping are not allowed.