Prairies Not Pipelines looks to a native Iowa alternative to CO2 capture

The fight over CO2 pipelines in Iowa continued Tuesday night, Oct. 4th at Briar Cliff University, with a proposed solution.
Prairies Not Pipelines was a community discussion over transforming parts of Iowa land back to the native prairie it once was and bringing natural carbon capture to the forefront.
Tuesday night's discussion included the benefits of reintroducing native prairies, as well as issues that urban, migrant and indigenous communities would face should these proposed pipelines become reality.
"Prairies, if they are healthy, sequester so much of the carbon down in the soils, unlike forests out west that are burning all the time," said speaker and Professor of Biology and Environmental Science at Briar Cliff University David Hoferer. "The problem with that is then the carbon of the tress is going right back into the air. But, prairies sequester down into their roots and then exchange the carbon with the microbes in the soil so it all stays in the soil."
This proposal looks to make wetlands and steep slopes in Iowa into prairie land, not removing farmland.
For the indigenous communities, pipeline creation is harmful on a sacred level.
"For us, the sacred spaces don't just exist on one plane. They go to the center of the earth all the way out to the universe," said Sikowis Nobiss, Executive Director of the Great Plains Action Society. "Those are smart stories that can be applied today, because they have no idea what is going to happen when they put this into the ground. There is very little data available about what is going to happen."