Wetlands are locations the place land and water meet. All through the Mississippi River watershed, wetlands retailer floodwater, enhance consuming water high quality, and function properties for tens of millions of birds and different animals. However this particular ecosystem is dealing with rising threats from improvement, air pollution, local weather change and up to date courtroom rulings that go away them susceptible to destruction.

In opposition to this backdrop, the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk printed a landmark reporting undertaking exploring the surprise of and threats to those landscapes, “Down the Drain: A watershed second for America’s biggest wetlands.”

This reporting arrives at an essential political second. Final 12 months, the Supreme Courtroom’s choice in Sackett v. EPA considerably restricted the company’s energy to manage wetlands, leading to greater than half the nation’s wetlands probably shedding federal protections. A March 2024 report from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service famous an approximate 50% enhance in wetland loss from 2009 to 2019 in comparison with the earlier decade. Additional, President Trump’s EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has heralded a brand new period for wetlands below the administration.

Down the Drain examines how these many authorized and coverage adjustments have an effect on wetlands within the basin and what the adjustments imply for the well being of the river and the folks and wildlife that depend on it. The Mississippi is the nation’s largest watershed, residence to 70 million People in 31 states.

As a part of the collaborative reporting undertaking, Down the Drain, the Ag & Water Desk printed an interactive story with the Minnesota Star Tribune exploring the historical past of wetland loss in the US and our relationship with these landscapes.

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