Al Finke grew up fishing the waters of Casey Lake, a 38-acre reservoir outside La Porte City that was originally dammed in 1970. He’s now capping off a 35-year career at Black Hawk County Conservation, where he’s currently the South Unit ranger and oversees a handful of sites, including Hickory Hills Park, where Casey Lake is located.
“The condition of the water decreased gradually over all those years,” Finke said while looking over the lake on a recent afternoon.
Casey Lake was listed on the state’s impaired waters list in 2006, as it became choked by algae growth and sediment build-up.
A 20-year program
“This time, five years ago, there would have been 20 feet of vegetation out into the water, and it was nearly unfishable from the shore,” he said.
But the lake has transformed after a two-year closure, during which it was drawn down and re-excavated as part of the Iowa Department of Natural Resource’s (DNR) Lake Restoration Program. Started by the state Legislature in 2006, the program is marking its 20th year of restoring lakes across the state.
“We've been fortunate. There's been a lot of great funding and partnerships over the tenure of the program,” said DNR Program Coordinator Michelle Balmer. “To date, we've got 72 lakes that we've made investments in, across 55 counties, so it's really been a broad reach.”
The Iowa Legislature has continued to support the program, allocating over $170 million toward restorations in the program's two-decade history. It received $9.6 million for the current fiscal year, allowing the DNR to take on roughly half a dozen projects across the state while maintaining progress at its other locations.
“We never really walk away from a lake,” Balmer said. “There's always changing issues as the environment changes or the watershed’s land use changes.”
Balmer said support for the program has only grown over the years.
“Iowans have become more cognizant of different water quality issues, and that's really great to see,” she said, adding that communities often feel passionately about their local recreation sites.
“I like hearing about people going down and interacting with a lake [after restoration]," Balmer said. “Because there's new recreation opportunities, or maybe they have fewer concerns about safety for their family related to abundant algae or things like that.”
Restoring Casey Lake
Casey Lake reopened with a ribbon-cutting in May and has welcomed back visitors this summer. Before it closed for renovation, the lake was plagued with excessive vegetation and sediment buildup, a common issue for Iowa’s water bodies. Water quality issues often make recreation dangerous at some beaches in the summer months.
Balmer said part of the challenges in Iowa's lakes stem from "really high concentrations" of phosphorus and nitrogen, which she said largely comes from agriculture.
"Iowans have become more cognizant of different water quality issues, and that's really great to see."Michelle Balmer, DNR Lake Restoration Program coordinator
Balmer said Iowa’s inherently rich soil contributes to the issue, as does fertilizer and soil runoff from agricultural fields. The phosphorous-rich runoff powers algae growth and settles along lake bottoms and dams in Iowa’s numerous man-made lakes.
Addressing those core issues is the first step in a typical restoration, including at Casey Lake. Finke said Black Hawk Conservation developed relationships with farmers surrounding the park. From there, they worked together to use cover crops, minimal tillage and other practices to reduce future runoff.
“Once those things were taken care of, so that we could control what's coming into the watershed in the future, we were at a point where the DNR said yes to the project," Finke said.
Farming practices that reduce nutrient pollution and improve watersheds are being developed across the state.
A renewed lake
The DNR funded roughly three-quarters of the $3.3 million restoration, with the county providing the remainder. It expanded beyond draining and excavating the estimated 135,000 cubic yards of sediment from the lake itself.
Crews also cleared brush along the shoreline to open trails, added an accessible fishing dock, conducted an alum-treatment to reduce phosphorus in the water and installed a series of upstream ponds and basins to trap field runoff before it reaches the lake itself.
In the area around the lake, park staff rotate goats through fields and forestland to combat overgrowth.
The project also addressed the lake’s fish population, which is a major attraction at the park. Finke said some users were concerned that fishing would take too long to bounce back after the restoration.
"A small handful of people really voiced displeasure, thinking that they're not going to live long enough, if they're older folks, to ever see the fishing that they saw five years ago, before the lake was drained,” Finke said.
But in May 2025, a year prior to reopening, the DNR stocked the restored lake with 13,000 bluegills and 3,500 bass. Finke said populations have expanded faster than expected.
"Everybody is on board with it now," he said.
Peering into the water, Finke scouted for fish.
“There are some keeper-sized bluegills in there already," he said.
