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]
Protecting People and Wildlife
By Melissa Samet, Senior Water Resources Counsel, National Wildlife Federation While operations and maintenance (or O&M) might not sound like something to be concerned about, it absolutely is. O&M carried out by the Army Corps of Engineers to maintain navigation on the Mississippi River causes enormous environmental harm and increases flood risks for river communities. O&M on the 1,20 ...[Read More]
Fargo Moorhead Diversion: Planners Fail to Meet State Permitting Requirements
By Rae Ann Kelsch North Dakota officials have told planners for the proposed Fargo Moorhead Diversion that they have not met state permitting requirements. The diversion project is designed to provide flood protection for the cities of Fargo and Moorhead as well as remove 50 square miles from the natural floodplain for future development. A 36-mile long diversion channel along with a dam on th ...[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 Risk Management Standards Updated Just in Time for Record-breaking Winter Floods
By Marisa Escudero, Water Resources Manager, National Wildlife Federation Winter 2016 has been a wet one for many of our WPNetwork Members. Major flooding on the Mississippi River and its tributaries prompted flood warnings for parts of Alabama, Arkansas, the Carolinas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas. At least 22 deaths over several days in Mis ...[Read More]