A support group and a lab in the St. Louis area provide resources for people with the allergy to mammal products — and evidence that its effects can be reversed.
This week marks my fourth as the Desk’s new assistant editorial director. In that time, I’ve waded into a wide range of projects, from redesigning the website to brainstorming our next big collaborative project to fact-checking a piece about black bears’ return to the lower Mississippi River basin. It’s been an exciting preview of the great work happening here and so much more to come.
I started at the Desk just in time to meet up with my new colleagues, including the newest cohort of Report for America corps members, at that organization’s national gathering in New Orleans. This was a bit of a homecoming for me, since I went to college there. I welcomed a Gulf Coast thunderstorm like an old friend and revisited Crescent Park along the Mississippi River, which I was excited to see has been extended, now stretching all the way from the Bywater to the French Quarter.
During one of our sessions with the reporters, Desk editorial director Chas Sisk led a conversation about what’s been most valuable for the team and what everyone is excited to do next. Collaboration was a common theme. Not just the big projects (though reporters consistently said these are among their favorite things to work on), but their ability to call each other up and leverage each other’s expertise.
Elise Plunk, who reports for the Louisiana Illuminator from Baton Rouge, recalled that when she was covering the rollback of wetlands protection laws in the state last year, she learned Tennessee had recently passed similar legislation. This was in the wake of Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency, which drastically limited the EPA’s authority to regulate wetlands under the Clean Water Act.
Elise called up Cassandra Stephenson, a Desk reporter in Nashville at the Tennessee Lookout, for the rundown, which she included in her piece. She showed that Louisiana’s loosening protections are part of a wider trend across the Mississippi basin, and the story was stronger for it.
I was excited to join the Desk because this team focuses on something I care deeply about: stories that remind us we’re part of a larger environmental community, beyond our cities and states. In that room full of Desk reporters, I got a glimpse of how this collaborative is uniquely positioned to show we are connected by environmental challenges and solutions alike. I can’t wait to help bring you more of these stories.
Sincerely,
Lina Tran Assistant Editorial Director, Ag & Water Desk
