Not satisfied with the natural lakes, people have impounded another 148,000 acres of water to fill large reservoirs and artificial lakes built for recreation. These structures may have earthen dams, rip-rapped shorelines, and mud bottoms, but we're still fascinated by bodies of water. We love to swim and fish in them, to sail and ski upon them, and to build our houses beside them. Drinking water from underground aquifers is used by 78 percent of Iowans. Photo by Paul VanDorpe.
Water sometimes cycles from the atmosphere back to Earth with a dramatic counterpoint.
Photo by Photographic Services, University of Iowa. In its continuing cycle, water stops temporarily to encase a bittersweet vine in ice. Photo by Lowell Washburn. Everybody likes lakes, it seems, but wetlands are another matter. Shallow marshes once teemed with birds, animals, and plant life, however their rich basins also became some of the richest cropland on Earth.