The government launched an effort to help prevent water pollution from
agricultural runoff in 1997. The secretary of agriculture says buffer
strips could help eliminate serious water pollution from farms. The
Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports… despite the
government’s offer of payments for converting farmland to greenways
along streams… farmers have been slow to embrace the effort:
Tag: rivers
Tumors Found on Zooplankton
Large tumors have been found on zooplankton in Lake Michigan. Scientists don't know the cause and don't know what the growths will mean to the food chain. (Photo courtesy of University of Michigan and NOAA/ Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory)
Scientists are alarmed at the discovery of tumors on tiny animals at
the base of the food chain in one of the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports… no one seems sure what this
will mean to life in the lakes:
Dairy Farm Endangers Trout Stream
In the tiny town of Martell in western Wisconsin, residents are trying
to stop a big new dairy farm they fear will pollute one of the best
trout streams in the Midwest — the Rush River, about an hour’s drive
east of the Twin Cities. Its the same kind of battle small towns and
rural residents are fighting across the Midwest, as large-scale
livestock operations continue to expand. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Mary Losure reports:
One Man and a Wheelbarrow
Using donated boats and motors, more than 200 tons of trash and junk has been pulled from the river during the last two years. Pregracke is looking toward new rivers now.
One man is on a campaign to clean up the nation’s rivers. He’s not
pushing a public relations campaign… he’s pushing a wheel barrow. Last
year alone he picked up 200-tons of trash along the Mississippi River.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports… now he’s
moving on to other rivers:
Federal Proposal May Drown Farmland
It doesn’t happen very often, but for the last year, a republican
governor, the farming community, and environmentalists have been working
together to protect endangered wetlands, by taking certain farmlands out
of production. But now, a new federal proposal could be separating the
groups. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jonathan Ahl has the story:
State Tries to Avoid Superfund Stigma
A polluted river in northeastern Wisconsin is due for a clean-up. But
who runs the massive project is a hot topic. The Environmental
Protection Agency may add the Fox River to its national priorities list,
more popularly known as Superfund. But state officials would rather
handle the project on their own…and have recently released preliminary
studies on how they envision the cleanup. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Patty Murray reports:
Clean Up Planned for Fox River
The state of Wisconsin is asking for the public’s opinion of its plan
to clean up a polluted river that flows into Green Bay. The Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Long Term Impacts of ’93 Flood
The Mississippi River is changing. Some fish and wildlife that once
lived in or around the river are gone and other plants and animals are
moving in. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports
researchers are finding that the flood of 1993 has accelerated those
changes:
Discovering Impacts of the ’93 Flood
Like many other trees that produce food for wildlife, this pecan tree died after the '93 flood.
It’s been more than five years since the great flood of ’93 hit the
upper Mississippi River and its tributaries. Since then towns have been
moved to higher ground. New levees have been built. And… people —for
the most part— have recovered from the damage. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Lester Graham reports that researchers are finding the
long-term damage has been to the environment:
New Ideas for Sediment Removal
The Corps of Engineers spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year
dredging harbors and river shipping channels nationwide to keep them
open. For more than 30 years conservationists have been yearning for
ways to do more than just keep barge canals open. They want to save
vulnerable river backwaters and ever-shallower lakes. Until recently
there has never been a technology capable of moving the amount of
sediment at reasonable costs while keeping the environment safe. But,
as the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Charlie Schlenker reports, that
may be changing: