The Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge celebrates its centennial this month with dozens of events aimed at getting people out to explore its beauty and unique value. It protects more than 240,000 acres of river floodplain -- the kind that, elsewhere in the watershed, has been
This season, the last of the ice that typically persists on the upper Mississippi River through the start of spring had melted and was floating downstream at the end of February. Many described the winter conditions as something they'd never experienced before. But as climate change continues to pro
Conservation groups and water policy experts feared that the Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency ruling would create a patchwork of state protections, threatening water quality in both the Great Lakes and Mississippi River watersheds. Now they say that fear is becoming a reality with a new bi
A proposal to create a federal funding program to protect the Mississippi River, which advocates say would mirror those of other major watersheds and is long overdue, is back in front of Congress.
The Midwest has thousands of miles of oil and natural gas pipelines running underneath farmland, forests, and even rivers. And many more pipeline projects are being proposed as part of efforts to lower greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.
A new report from the Upper Mississippi River Basin Association found that although water quality has generally improved in the upper river in past decades, new threats, such as road salt and lead, are emerging.
Alternating extremes of heavy rainfall and drought are making it harder for the Army Corps of Engineers — which must by law maintain the Mississippi River for commerce, including the transportation of grain — to predict and plan a multi-million-dollar practice of constant dredging. In the upper reac
Lack of rain brought drought to much of the Mississippi River basin early this summer, and it’s likely going to linger into winter, Army Corps of Engineers leadership said during a press conference on Nov. 8 in Memphis, while a dredge was working nonstop to keep the river channel open a few miles so
After floods hammered St. Louis and eastern Kentucky this summer, the Ag & Water Desk wanted to know: Is rainfall increasing in the Mississippi River basin?
Mississippi River watershed communities like Bay City, Wisconsin are feeling the effects of environmental degradation. Advocates hope a proposed federal funding program, based on a successful initiative in the Great Lakes, could change this.
