Artist Statement:
Before the transformation of the Iowa landscape from Native Prairie to intense agricultural uses, streams and rivers in north central Iowa were able to support a healthy population of trout and other fish species.
Iowa has the most changed landscape since the early settlers farmed the land and fished the streams. Today, only 1/10 of 1 percent of Iowa’s Natural Prairies are left.
As you view this sculpture portraying the trout that used to swim in our streams, try to understand how the continual depletion of clean fresh-water streams and the loss of healthy habitats have deprived the trout their ability to thrive and replenish the species in the streams rather than through intervention by humans to manually propagate trout. The sculpture shows the graceful lean shape of the trout and its natural movements through a stream.