One of Iowa’s most prominent environmentalists, Richard Leopold, has run the Polk County Conservation Board for a year and a half. That is the conservation arm of county government. Leopold — call him Rich — and his staff are remaking Easter Lake, Ewing Park, Fort Des Moines and a bunch of other parks with the help of a voter-approved $50 million bond issue.

Leopold rose in environmental ranks as executive director of the nonprofit Iowa Environmental Council. His work there, particularly on water quality, led Gov. Chet Culver to appoint Leopold as director of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources in 2007. After that, Leopold worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for a time before making a stop at one of his previous places of employment, the Dickinson County Conservation Board in the environmentally and recreationally important Iowa Great Lakes area. 

When his wife took a job at Drake University, Leopold — related to Iowa-born conservationist Aldo Leopold only in spirit, he says — returned to Des Moines just in time for the hottest water quality debate in a long time. 

We sat down to talk to Leopold about his management style, plans, goals and exotic travel.

You have big plans for improvements to county parks. Can you list some highlights?
It’s a $50 million program through a bond issue. We started with a lot of things that were ready to go. Parks projects, trails projects, things like that, and a few key acquisitions. As time goes on, we’ll be doing less of that and much more water quality and land acquisition work. One of our responsibilities with the bond is to leverage that money as much as possible. For example, we are doing a ton of work at Easter Lake. And I mean in total, with the trail and the lake restoration and the lodge and everything, it might be $30 million we are spending at Easter Lake. I’m guessing we’ll only spend $5 million or $7 million of that from bond money.

Would the lodge provide housing?
No, it would be an events center, similar to Jester Park.

And you have a new facility at Jester Park, too?
That will be a nature center. That’s a big deal. It’s a $10 million project. There is nothing like it in Polk County. We are the only urban center in the state that doesn’t have a nature center. 

Why the big push?
Our community is growing so fast. One of the reasons that we are ranking so highly in these national polls is our quality of life. When people move here, they want quality experiences: nice parks, bike trails, clean water, canoe access.

How would you describe Easter Lake’s image in the area? 
I think Easter Lake is known to the neighborhood. But what we are doing is going to make it a regional attraction. It’s like Gray’s Lake. Few people knew about it. Now everybody knows about it and goes there. It’s going to be that same kind of phenomenon at Easter Lake. 

Would you describe Easter Lake as underused?
Very much so. With Ewing Park, you have a complex. On the west side of town, you have Water Works Park and Brown’s Woods and Walnut Woods, and on the southeast side of town you are going to have Ewing Park and Easter Lake. We also bought 280 acres across the Des Moines River from Easter Lake. A portion of that is old gravel pits. Part of it will be used for the dredge material. When we are done, we’ll have a new 280-acre park, and most of it will be water still.

Do you have the money to make the 280 acres a park?
Yes. It will be more low-impact. Easter Lake is buzzing. We may even put a campground at Easter Lake. But this new park is going to be more laid back, for paddlers and hikers and for public hunting. You have to have a mix.

What are your goals for the department?
My No. 1 focus is to make sure Polk County Conservation is effective and efficient. I’ve had a lot of audits in my career, and I am proud of that. I want people to know how we are spending our money. I want a talented, high-functioning staff. I don’t like dead weight in government. 

How serious are the water quality issues here? 
They are very serious as is evidenced by all the recent animosity around the (Des Moines) Water Works lawsuit. I was the head of the DNR for four years. We did a lot of stuff, but the water didn’t get any cleaner. It is such a huge problem. (The Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy) is scientifically sound. It’s a nice engine, but there is no gas for the engine. I think if we had a sustainable and predictable funding mechanism, we could actually implement some change. (Leopold supports the sales tax increase for the Iowa Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund.)

You said you like to fish, hike and camp in your spare time. You’ve made three trips to Southeast Asia, including two treks in Thailand. What led to those jaunts?
I have a group of guy friends. Once every two years, we go somewhere bizarre on the planet and just wander around. We backpack and stay at hostels and use public transportation and stuff like that. We went to northern Scotland in winter. The Baltic States. Vietnam. Cambodia.