Mississippi River Basin: Ag & Water Desk
The Ag & Water Desk team is made up of ten partner news organizations: Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, Madison, WI; the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting, Champaign, IL; The Courier-Journal, Louisville, KY; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Milwaukee, WI; The Daily Memphian, Memphis, TN; Northern Public Radio – WNIJ, DeKalb, IL; Harvest Public Media, Kansas City, MO; Star Tribune, Minneapolis, MN; The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, IA; and The Lens in New Orleans, LA. Each news outlet applied to be part of the project through Report for America. Each outlet has hired one reporter to participate as a member of the Ag & Water Desk.
Additionally, the desk has five expert journalists and two senior advisors based at the following outlets: Inside Climate News, Washington, D.C.; The St. Louis Post Dispatch, St. Louis; DTN/The Progressive Farmer; the Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis; WWNO, New Orleans Public Radio, New Orleans and The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate | NOLA.com, New Orleans.
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Climate change-fueled hurricanes and sea-level rise get a lot of attention, but Mississippi River Basin communities also are experiencing the effects of global warming. -
The western border of Atchison County, Mo., follows the twisting path of the Missouri River.Acres of corn and soy fields once lined its shores, but after a nearby levee suffered seven breaches in the Flood of 2019, the cropland was ruined.
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A changing climate is transforming farm country in the Mississippi River watershed, causing rain to fall in harder bursts that push back planting seasons and drown crops. Meanwhile, farming practices such as installing underground drainage tiles and leaving fields bare after harvest are further changing how water moves across the landscape and into waterways. How communities adapt to all this water will shape the future of their farms.
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Increased rainfall and repetitive flooding strain aging infrastructure in many towns across the Mississippi River Basin. But what options do residents have?
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The late-July storms that devastated St. Louis and Eastern Kentucky helped showcase the risks wrought by a climate that is growing hotter and wetter –- and more prone to dumping massive rains and flash flooding on communities whose creeks, streams and drainage systems are not equipped to handle such volatile waters. The shifting trends raise urgent questions about society’s readiness to cope.
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President Biden signed an executive order in January 2021 representing the biggest federal commitment to environmental justice in the nation’s history. It’s intended to help communities like Lavigne’s achieve their clean energy goals and more, all while keeping the most vulnerable communities in mind.
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Federal and state agencies spend millions of dollars every year to keep destructive invasive carp out of the Great Lakes. Meanwhile, at least 25 destructive species — like water fleas and bloody red shrimp — are inching closer to the Mississippi River Basin.
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A climate study released during one of the hottest summers on record predicts a 125-degree “extreme heat belt” will stretch across a quarter of the country by 2053. The hottest cities, according to the study, will be Kansas City, Mo.; St. Louis; Memphis, Tenn.; Tulsa, Okla.; and Chicago.
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Climate experts say summer nights have gotten warmer, harming farmers and animals.
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The so-called dead zone where the Mississippi River dumps into the Gulf of Mexico, an area of low oxygen that cannot sustain life, clocked in at 3,275 square miles this year -- below the recent average and smaller than what was previously predicted, but almost twice the target goal set by the Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Task Force.
