Originally Published by The McKnight Foundation, November 10, 2016 Written by Mark Muller, Mississippi River Program Director Given the intense election coverage of the past few months, you would be forgiven if you missed the news of some big environmental catastrophes. Several weeks ago, Cedar Rapids endured a massive flood. In the month prior, flooding in Baton Rouge caused the area’s largest na ...[Read More]
Learning from the Lives Along the River
Restoring Floodplains…With Science!
Written by Eileen Shader, American Rivers Floodplains are an integral part of healthy rivers, while floods are a natural occurrence on rivers. These simple facts can be hard to accept when floods cause damage to people and property every year. But as Gilbert White, a geographer known as the father of floodplain management once said: “Floods are ‘acts of god’, but flood losses are largely acts of m ...[Read More]
How Kayaking Saved the Los Angeles River
Take a look at this fantastic article, How Kayaking Saved the Los Angeles River, written by Hayden Coplen, detailing the plight of opening the Los Angeles River for public use. The article will interest our WPNetwork members as it touches on how the Clean Water Rule and Army Corps of Engineers policies helped shape this story. “The L.A. River is an enigma, sitting in plain view ...[Read More]
Déjà Crue, all over again
By Brad Walker, Missouri Coalition for the Environment – Rivers Director Here we go again; another major Midwest flood and lots of earnest questions about why it happened, who’s to blame, how we can fix it, etc., etc., etc. Comparison of the Missouri, Mississippi and Meramec Rivers water volumes – December 19th ...[Read More]
Federal Flood Protection Standards One Year Later
Originally Published by Natural Resources Defense Council, February 16, 2016 By Rob Moore One year ago, President Obama issued a directive to all federal agencies to begin preparing for sea level rise and the increasing risk of flooding caused by climate change. The directive established new federal flood protection standards that will go a long way towards making the nation more resilient. One ye ...[Read More]