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.
Our reporters and student journalists learn about floodplain farming near Columbia, Missouri, with Missouri River Relief as part of our October 2022 conference. Credit: Halle Parker, WWNO
Our collaborative, now a year old, is embarking on an exciting new chapter. Our funding is expanding and we’re adding more newsrooms and reporters to our cohort, enabling us to tell more and deeper stories of this watershed at a transformative moment in its history.
This expanded support will help us add 10 more newsrooms, with 10 new Ag & Water Desk reporters, to our current team. We especially hope to grow our coverage in the South and reach outlets serving communities of color. News outlets in the basin are invited to apply by Sept. 18 to host one of these positions through Report for America.
We’d love for you to reach out to your local newspaper, TV or radio station, or community news outlet, and encourage them to apply to join us. Scroll on for a quick template you can use to do so. And as always, stay tuned for more stories — thanks for being with us!
Yours,
Annie Ropeik
Ag & Water Desk Assistant Director
Watch this video by Report for America about the mission of the Ag & Water Desk.
Tell your local news outlet to apply to expand their team with an Ag & Water Desk reporter!
Feel free to add your own personal touches on it! You can copy our Editorial Director Tegan Wendland at tegan@agwaterdesk.org if you wish. We also have an info session on Aug. 16.
Dear editor,
I want to read more news about our community’s changing relationship to the Mississippi River basin. That’s why I encourage you to take advantage of an opportunity to add a new environmental reporter to your newsroom, with financial and editorial support as part of a national network.
There are 10 reporting positions available through Report for America and the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, a watershed-wide journalism collaborative. These positions come with 50% salary coverage in the first year, editorial support, training and more. You can email editor Tegan Wendland with questions at tegan@agwaterdesk.org. Applications are due September 18: https://agwaterdesk.org/2023/08/03/host-desk-journalist-2023/
The Mississippi is at the heart of where we get our food and water, and it’s seeing unprecedented changes. I know it’s also a time of unprecedented strain for local news outlets. Adding one of these reporters would help expand your coverage of these urgent issues, while increasing your reach in national and local outlets across the country. I hope you’ll consider it.
Sincerely,
(your name & location)
How is extreme weather affecting you?
If you live in the Mississippi River watershed, we want to hear from you for our series A Changing Basin.
How are you dealing with floods and intense rainfall, extreme heat and humidity, wildfire smoke and other new hazards? How is your community responding?
Let us know and please share with friends and family!
By Madeline Heim, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel — Aug. 4, 2023
➤ “It’s really difficult to say, ‘Why here? What caused this?’” said Andy Meier, a forester with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “How do you restore it, being confident you won’t just have the same thing happen again?”
Army Corps of Engineers forester Sara Rother drives a boat full of trees to be planted on an island south of La Crosse, Wisconsin, in the Mississippi River on June 2, 2023, as part of floodplain forest habitat restoration efforts. Credit: Mark Hoffman, Milwaukee Journal SentinelThe hypoxic "dead zone" at the end of the Mississippi River is seen by satellite south of Louisiana in 2017. Credit: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
➤ Experts say the slight decrease was not likely due to ongoing efforts to reduce the harmful runoff carried downstream by the Mississippi River. Instead, it’s largely due to low water flow on the Mississippi and to fluctuating ocean temperatures.
