This year Iowa lawmakers passed legislation that was signed by the Governor drastically cutting funding for the Leopold Center for Sustainability at Iowa State University. Leopold Center board director Aaron Lehman, President of the Iowa Farmers Union says he’ll be trying to get lawmakers to restore the Center’s funding next session.

He says farmers are also facing more and more pressures to be environmentally responsible and to improve water quality and the Center is needed to help them with that.

Lehman says the Leopold Center has helped many projects that have improved the environmental footprint and that is needed now more than ever.

The Leopold Center remains basically in name only with only a quarter of its funding remaining. The other three quarters of its fund were transferred to the Iowa State University Nutrient Center.