Wetlands are places where land and water meet. Throughout the Mississippi River watershed, wetlands store floodwater, improve drinking water quality, and serve as homes for millions of birds and other animals. But this special ecosystem is facing growing threats from development, pollution, climate change and recent court rulings that leave them vulnerable to destruction.
Against this backdrop, the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk published a landmark reporting project exploring the wonder of and threats to these landscapes, “Down the Drain: A watershed moment for America’s greatest wetlands.”
This reporting arrives at an important political moment. Last year, the Supreme Court’s decision in Sackett v. EPA significantly limited the agency’s power to regulate wetlands, resulting in more than half the nation’s wetlands potentially losing federal protections. A March 2024 report from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service noted an approximate 50% increase in wetland loss from 2009 to 2019 compared to the previous decade. Further, President Trump’s EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has heralded a new era for wetlands under the administration.
Down the Drain examines how these many legal and policy changes affect wetlands in the basin and what the changes mean for the health of the river and the people and wildlife that rely on it. The Mississippi is the nation’s largest watershed, home to 70 million Americans in 31 states.
- A new era dawns for America’s disappearing wetlands as feds retreat from oversight By Madeline Heim, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
- For sport or food, love of birds is saving grace for America’s wetlands By Greg Stanley, Minnesota Star Tribune
- Delta duck hunting offers conservation solutions, but the ducks are disappearing By Lucas Dufalla, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and Phillip Powell, Arkansas Times
- Wetlands protections built an industry for mitigation banking. Rollbacks could erode it By Cassandra Stephenson, Tennessee Lookout, and Delaney Dryfoos, The Lens NOLA
- “A living laboratory”: How an accidental delta taught Louisiana scientists how to rebuild wetlands By Elise Plunk, Louisiana Illuminator, and Eva Tesfaye, WWNO
- Pitching wetlands as a solution to flooding wins bipartisan support in Wisconsin By Madeline Heim and Caitlin Looby, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
- A Mississippi flood relief project could harm 90,000 acres of valuable wetlands. Is it worth the tradeoff? By Illan Ireland, Mississippi Free Press
- One Iowa landowner fights to farm a designated wetland. Others could face consequences downstream By Jared Strong, The Gazette; Jess Savage, WNIJ and Illan Ireland, Mississippi Free Press
- For hidden wonders, visit wetlands near you By Dean Klikenberg, author of The Wild Mississippi: A State-by-State Guide to the River’s Natural Wonders
As part of the collaborative reporting project, Down the Drain, the Ag & Water Desk published an interactive story with the Minnesota Star Tribune exploring the history of wetland loss in the United States and our relationship with these landscapes.
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