The endangered interior least tern can be spotted along the Mississippi River in the New Madrid Floodway. (USFWS Endangered Species/Flickr)

1,600 Miles of Levees

The New Madrid Floodway is one of only four federally designated flood zones along the Mississippi River. The Floodway is walled off from the Mississippi River by levees, except for a quarter-mile gap at the bottom of the Floodway. This gap is precious. It is the only place in Missouri where the River can still reach its floodplain, and a rare gap in the nearly impregnable 1,600 miles of levees we’ve built on the banks of the lower Mississippi River from St. Louis all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. This rare and important river-floodplain connection sustains wetlands that filter water pollution, stores floodwaters to protect nearby river towns from flooding, and provides vital habitat for a large number of rare and endangered species like the interior least tern and the swamp rabbit.

But this precious and rare floodplain is in danger.

The rare swamp rabbit is found within the New Madrid Floodway. Its dense fur acts to repel water, making it possible for the rabbit to swim across bodies of water to find food or escape predators. The rabbit gained some fame after a 1979 incident with Jimmy Carter, when he saw one swimming toward his boat. (Missouri Department of Conservation)

A Scheme to Sever the Connection

The Army Corps of Engineers is pushing the St. Johns/New Madrid Levee Project forward, a 60-year-old scheme to construct a 60-foot tall levee to plug this important gap.  The proposed New Madrid Levee would sever this last remaining connection between the Mississippi and its Missouri floodplain in order to protect agricultural interests within the floodway.

But the project will have a devastating effect on the environment and the fish and wildlife that rely on the floodplain.  The project will also put river communities at increased risk of flooding.

The New Madrid Levee would wall off some 80,000 acres of regularly inundated floodplain from the river, including approximately 50,000 acres of wetlands. This floodplain shelters Mississippi River fish as they spawn and raise their young in its warm, calm waters, protecting them from the river’s colder, higher velocity waters.

Protect the River’s Wildlife

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the project “will result in significant losses of regionally and nationally important fish and wildlife resources which cannot be adequately mitigated.”

In other words, the environmental damage is so extensive that the Corps of Engineers cannot possibly replace the fish and wildlife habitat and the wetlands and floodplain areas it is destroying, which is required as a matter of law.

A Corps of Engineers Independent Review Panel for this project even stated that the “loss of this last remaining connection and its ecosystem functioning would be the ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’ in terms of the total cumulative impact” to the natural ecosystem.

It’s time to put an end to this destructive project once and for all.

Spread the Word

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Help spread the word about protecting the swamp rabbits, least terns, and fish that depend on the last remaining connection between the Mississippi River and it’s Missouri Floodplain.

If you are a resident of Missouri, send a message urging Governor Nixon to stop the New Madrid Floodway levee.

Asian silver carp leap out of the water when disturbed by the sound of boat motors. (Great Lakes Fishery Commission photo)

“We’re winning the war on Asian carp,” Davis said Wednesday during a White House Great Lakes Summit, which was held in conjunction with Great Lakes Days in Washington, D.C.

Government crews are “beating back” the advance of Asian carp in the Chicago Waterway System, the network of manmade canals that form an artificial link between the Mississippi River and Lake Michigan, Davis said.

His claim was met with a stunned silence from the group of scientists and conservation leaders (including several from National Wildlife Federation) who were invited to participate in the Great Lakes Summit.

The reason: Researchers have repeatedly found traces of Asian carp DNA in Chicago-area waters with direct connections to Lake Michigan. Those findings suggest Asian carp have breached a flawed electric fish barrier in the Chicago Waterway System and reached the southern fringe of Lake Michigan.

Faster action needed on separating Great Lakes, Mississippi River basins

The Obama Administration has spent more than $100 million over the past two years to fight Asian carp and plans to spent another $50 million this year. That level of support is commendable.

Asian carp — which eat like hogs, breed like mosquitoes and leap out of the water when disturbed by the sound of boat motors — could decimate the $7 billion Great Lakes fishery and pose potentially lethal hazards to boaters in the region.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is currently moving at a snail’s pace as it studies how best to prevent Asian carp in the Mississippi River system from invading the Great Lakes. The Corps plans to study the issue for at least three more years before recommending solutions.

Experts have said that separating Lake Michigan from the Mississippi River is the only sure way to prevent Asian carp and other harmful invasive species from moving between the two basins.

The Great Lakes Commission produced a report in January that offered three options for breaking the artificial connection between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River basin. Read more here.

The looming threat

Currently, there are no reproducing populations of Asian carp in the Great Lakes. But individual Asian carp have previously been found in Lake Erie, Lake Huron and Chicago-area waters connected to Lake Michigan.

Given the mounting evidence of Asian carp lurking in southern Lake Michigan, it’s premature for government officials to claim they are winning the war against this menacing species of fish.

Worse, it’s tempting fate.

The reason: The Great Lakes Commission on Tuesday released its long-awaited study of how to separate Lake Michigan from the Chicago Waterway System and the Mississippi River basin. (Go here for more details)

The Chicago Waterway System, built in the late 1800s, is a network of canals that created an unnatural link between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River basin; it is also the pipeline through which Asian carp and other invasive species move between the Mississippi River and Great Lakes basins.

The study by the Great Lakes Commission and Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative — which cost $2 million and was completed in just 14 months — provided three options for separating Lake Michigan from the Mississippi River basin.  Most importantly, the study showed that separating the two basins could be achieved without causing flooding in Chicago or harming the regional economy.

The Great Lakes Commission study provided three options for separating Lake Michigan from the Mississippi River basin.

Keeping Asian carp out of the Great Lakes will take a Herculean effort by many government agencies. But it is clearly a war worth fighting. Allowing Asian carp to invade the Great Lakes would cost far more than preventing this ecological disaster.

Scientists have concluded that separating the Great Lakes from the Mississippi River basin is the only permanent solution to the invasive species crisis that is wreaking havoc on both of these massive ecosystems.

It’s important to note that the Great Lakes Commission produced its study in 14 months. The U.S. Army Corps Engineer’s study of how best to keep Asian carp in the Mississippi and Illinois rivers from invading Lake Michigan won’t be completed until late 2015, at the earliest. The timeline for the Army Corps study is simply unacceptable.

It took the United States four years to win World War II and a decade to put a man on the moon. At its current pace, the Army Corps will take at least eight years — from the time Congress authorized the Asian carp study — to propose solutions; implementing a solution will take several more years.

Asian carp could be spreading throughout the Great Lakes by the time the Army Corps proposes a permanent solution.

The Chicago Waterway System created an unnatural link between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River basin.

Much of the information in this timeline was culled from a series of articles written by Dan Egan of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Egan’s outstanding work brought the Asian carp crisis to the nation’s attention and he continues to break news about the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers questionable handling of this looming ecological disaster.

ASIAN CARP TIMELINE

1963: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service imports grass carp from Malaysia to a federal research facility in Arkansas.

1966: First believed escape of Asian carp into U.S. waters, in Arkansas.

1970: State of Arkansas begins stocking grass carp in weed-choked waters throughout the state.

1973: An Arkansas fish farmer who ordered the first commercial import of grass carp from Taiwan unintentionally receives the nation’s first shipment of bighead, silver and black carp.

1974: The Arkansas Fish and Game Commission agrees to take the bighead, silver and black carp from the fish farmer who mistakenly received the fish from Taiwan. The state begins breeding the fish and reports it stocked more than 380,000 grass carp in Arkansas waters.

1979: Arkansas Game and Fish, with a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, begins using silver and bighead carp in sewage treatment experiments.

1980: The first report of silver carp swimming in the wild.

Early 1990s: Flooding allows silver and bighead carp in Arkansas fish farms to escape into the Mississippi River.

2002: Electric fish barrier is installed in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, about 25 miles from where the Chicago River connects with Lake Michigan. The barrier was originally built to prevent round gobies in Lake Michigan from migrating into the Mississippi River basin via the Chicago canal system. Gobies breached the barrier before it was completed, so government officials opted to use it to stop the northerly migration of Asian carp.

Late 2002: Biologists find Asian carp 21 miles downstream of the experimental fish barrier, roughly 45 miles from the Lake Michigan shoreline in Chicago.

2003: After a common carp is tracked swimming through the electric fish barrier, operators increase the voltage. The barrier then fails for 25 hours, but government officials doubt that any Asian carp passed through it during the power outage.

2007: Congress directs the Army Corps of Engineers to find ways to halt the movement of Asian carp and other invasive species between the Mississippi River and Great Lakes basins. Three years passes before the Army Corps begins the study.

November 2008: A study commissioned by the Alliance for the Great Lakes concludes that hydrologic separation of Lake Michigan from the Chicago Waterway System and Mississippi River basin is technically feasible.

November 2009: The Army Corps of Engineers discloses that 32 positive samples of Asian carp DNA were found beyond the electric fish barrier; some were found within nine miles of Lake Michigan. In response to those findings, National Wildlife Federation and other conservation groups call for permanent separation of Lake Michigan from the Mississippi River basin.

January 2010: The U.S. Supreme Court rejects Michigan’s request for a preliminary injunction that would have forced the closure of locks in the Chicago Waterway System to prevent Asian carp from reaching Lake Michigan. Hours later, the Corps of Engineers announces it has found Asian carp DNA in waters connected to Lake Michigan.

June 2010: Federal officials rule out closing locks in the Chicago Waterway System to prevent Asian carp from reaching Lake Michigan. That same month, one live bighead carp was found in Lake Calumet, which is several miles south of Lake Michigan but directly connected to it.

February 2010: President Obama pledges $78 million to prevent Asian carp in the Mississippi River and Chicago Waterway System from invading the Great Lakes.

April 2010: The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear a request to permanently separate the Great Lakes from the Mississippi River to prevent the movement of Asian carp and other harmful aquatic invasive species between the two basins. The attorneys general of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio and New York filed the case.

July 2010: Asian carp are found in Indiana’s Wabash River, a few miles from where the Wabash often floods and flows into the Maumee River, a major tributary of Lake Erie.

December 2010: The Corps of Engineers launches its Great Lakes and Mississippi River Interbasin Study, known as GLMRIS. The agency announces that the study of how to keep Asian carp and other invasive species from moving between the Mississippi River and Great Lakes basins will be completed in 2015. Conservation groups and some members of Congress call on the Army Corps to complete the study within 18 months, but the agency refuses to alter its timeline.

March 2011: The Corps of Engineers acknowledges that the electric barrier in the Chicago Waterway system doesn’t repel all sizes of Asian carp.

June 2011: A group of prominent scientists, after concluding that an Asian carp invasion of the Great Lakes is imminent, calls for the hydrologic separation of the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins.

July 2011: For the third time in 2011, the Corps of Engineers finds Asian carp DNA in Lake Calumet, which is directly connected to Lake Michigan.

December 2011: A Corps of Engineers study reveals that the volume of cargo hauled on the Chicago Waterway System decreased by nearly 50 percent between 1994 and 2009. The study discredits the claim that separating the Lake Michigan from the Chicago Waterway System — to halt the movement of Asian carp and other invasive species between the Mississippi River and Great Lakes basins — will devastate Chicago’s economy. Go here for more study details.

January 2012: The U.S. Geological Survey concludes that three of Ohio’s largest rivers — the Maumee, Sandusky and Grand — provide suitable habitat for Asian carp, which could allow the fish to establish a reproducing population in western Lake Erie.

January 2012: The study by the Great Lakes Commission and the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative provides three options for creating a permanent hydrologic barrier between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River basin. Building the barriers would cost between $3 billion and $9 billion and take at least a decade to complete, according to the study.

Asian carp were imported to Arkansas fish farms in the 1960s; the fish have since spread throughout the Mississippi River basin. The menacing invaders, which hog fish food and leap out of the water when disturbed by the sound of boat motors, are on the verge of invading Lake Erie and Lake Michigan.

A new study by the U.S. Geological Survey found that Asian carp could thrive in Ohio’s Maumee, Sandusky, and Grand rivers, which could allow the fish to establish reproducing populations in Western Lake Erie. Such a development would be devastating for the most bountiful of all the Great Lakes fisheries.

Michigan’s U.S. Senators, Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin, called for immediate, stronger action to keep Asian carp from invading the Great Lakes.

“Asian carp represent a critical threat to our boating, fishing and tourism industries, and ultimately our Michigan way of life,” Stabenow said in a press release. “This report further shows how devastating the carp’s entry into the Great Lakes would be. We need action now to protect our natural resources.”

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is currently studying how best to keep Asian carp and other invasive species in the Mississippi River basin from invading the Great Lakes. The problem is that the study won’t be completed until late 2015, at the earliest.

Stabenow recently introduced the Stop Asian Carp Act of 2011 in an attempt to speed up the Corps of Engineers study. Her bill, which is stalled in a Congressional committee, would require the Corps to complete its Great Lakes and Mississippi River Interbasin Study within 18 months.

National Wildlife Federation is leading efforts to keep Asian carp from colonizing the Great Lakes. Go here to learn more about what we are doing to combat the invasive fish.

The disturbing results of the USGS study were the most recent reason for the Corps of Engineers to hasten its study of how best to separate the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins.

A Corps of Engineers study released in December found that the volume of cargo hauled on the Chicago Waterway System decreased by nearly 50 percent between 1994 and 2009. That study destroyed claims that separating the Lake Michigan from the Chicago Waterway System — to keep Asian carp in the manmade canals from invading the Great Lakes — would devastate Chicago’s economy. Go here for more study details.

Later this month, the Great Lakes Commission will release a much-anticipated study of potential options for separating Lake Michigan from the Chicago Waterway System. The Chicago-area canals  provide an artificial link between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River basin.

The rationale for acting quickly to separate the Great Lakes from the Mississippi River basin grows stronger with every passing day. Sadly, most members of Congress and the head honchos in the Corps of Engineers don’t view this brewing ecological disaster with the same sense of urgency that is shared by the millions of people who rely on the Great Lakes for recreation and their livelihoods.

Perhaps a blow to the head from a flying Asian carp would change the minds of those in Congress and the Corps of Engineers who believe that we have plenty of time to keep Asian carp from invading the Great Lakes. We don’t.

Asian carp photo courtesy Jason Lindsey

Unfortunately, these abundant natural resources in Minnesota are the latest victim of Asian carp.

Known to batter boaters and even knock them into the water at the sound of a passing motor, Asian carp are voracious filter feeders that can grow to more than 4 feet long, weigh up to 100 pounds and quickly dominate a body of water by gobbling up the same food that sustains native fish populations.

Asian Carp in the Twin Cities

Earlier this summer, positive eDNA hits of Asian carp were detected(Minnesota Carp eDNA hits map )in the Mississippi, Minnesota and St. Croix rivers near the Twin Cities.  Further elevating the urgency of this crisis, on December 8^th, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MN DNR) officials announced that positive eDNA samples indicated that silver carp are above and below the Coon Rapids Dam – just north of the Twin Cities.

Not good news for those 11,842 lakes. 

While most of the focus remains on stopping Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes via the Chicago Waterway System, we must work to close all the doors across the Great Lakes Basin to carp.  As such, NWF and our state affiliate, Minnesota Conservation Federation (MCF), have pulled together a strong and diverse coalition of sportsmen and women, environmental groups and private property owners in calling for immediate action to stop the northward advance of carp into Minnesota’s waters.

Asian Carp Solutions

Lock #1 downtown Minneapolis

While this goal is similar to our efforts in Chicago, the political lay of the land is more promising in Minnesota.  Unlike Chicago, the state and some federal agencies are moving fast and there seems to be momentum building to prevent carp from advancing up the Mississippi River.  In fact, it is our hope that our efforts in Minnesota can serve as an example for the Chicago Waterway System that achieving a permanent solution is feasible. 

New Nickname for Minnesota?

If we don’t act now and implement a plan of action to stop carp, Minnesota better start thinking of a new state nickname. 

How about this one:  Land of 10,000 Asian Carp Infested Lakes? 

Sad, but possibly true.

Introducing: Choose Your Cause

Because of my personal experience and passion for protecting special places in Minnesota and throughout the Great Lakes, I know first-hand what a profound effect my donations to this program can have.  And, it’s why I choose to continue to support this program through NWF’s newly launched Choose Your Cause online portal.

I know that you care about protecting Minnesota’s vast water resources from Asian carp and other threats.  So, through our new Choose Your Cause site,  Just click on the cause you care about most and enjoy inspiring stories and photos from folks on-the-ground who are working tirelessly to protect the wildlife and wild places we all love.

Asian carp/ Photo courtesy United States Fish and Wildlife Service

Finally.

The invasive fish could be part of the U.S. Senate’s 2012 budget vote. The Senate may vote as early as this week on a budget amendment that would require the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to speed up its study of how best to keep Asian carp in the Mississippi River basin from reaching the Great Lakes.

For that we can thank U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich. She introduced the Stop Asian Carp amendment to the budget bill.

Stabenow’s amendment would direct the Army Corps to complete its study of how best to separate the Great Lakes from the Mississippi River basin within 18 months. As it stands now, the Corps won’t complete its Great Lakes and Mississippi River Interbasin Study (GLMRIS) until 2015. That’s far too long — Asian carp are on the verge of invading Lake Michigan.

Four species of Asian carp were imported to commercial fish farms in Arkansas in the 1960s; they later escaped into the Mississippi River. The gluttonous invaders now dominate vast areas of the Mississippi River basin. If allowed to reach the Great Lakes, the fish would pose potentially deadly threats to boaters and could devastate the region’s $7 billion fishery.

The Army Corps is currently relying on three electric fences in the Chicago Waterway System to keep Asian carp in the Mississippi and Illinois rivers from reaching Lake Michigan. But those electric fences don’t repel all sizes of Asian carp, according to the Army Corps’ own studies.

Researchers have already found Asian carp DNA, and one live Asian carp, in waters near Chicago that are connected to Lake Michigan. Despite the imminent threat of these menacing fish invading the Great Lakes, the Army Corps is content to study the problem for another four years.

The Stabenow amendment would ensure that agencies charged with protecting the Great Lakes and Mississippi River Basins have the information needed to re-imagine the Chicago Waterway System to protect U.S. waters that provide drinking water, jobs and recreational opportunities to millions of Americans.

Please take a moment today to call or e-mail your U.S. senators and urge them to vote for the Stop Asian Carp amendment. It is our best hope of keeping these invasive fish from laying siege to the world’s largest freshwater ecosystem.

This post was written by Dr. Alisha Renfro, a coastal scientist with NWF working on the Mississippi River Delta restoration in coastal Louisiana. She has Ph.D. in Marine and Atmospheric Science from Stony Brook University.

Dr. Alex Kolker, a professor from the Louisiana University Marine Consortium, obtaining a sediment sample. (Photo courtesy/Alisha Renfro)

The current management of the river keeps it strait-jacketed between levees with only a few valves that can be opened during high river flows, relieving the pressure of water on the levees, shunting it past communities and allowing sediment, freshwater, and nutrients to get to these marshes. Instead, the sediment carried by the river is now lost to the deeper waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

One of the exceptions to this is the West Bay Diversion, located on the western side of the Bird’s Foot Delta. This diversion was constructed in 2003 when the United States Army Corps of Engineers cut through the river bank, connecting the river with West Bay. In 2009, the Army Corps constructed islands out of material dredged from the river’s navigation channel to help promote sediment-trapping in the diversion area.

Scientists Take a Trip to West Bay

This past weekend, National Wildlife Federation, along with Dr. John Day, a professor emeritus from Louisiana State University, and Dr. Alex Kolker, a professor from the Louisiana University Marine Consortium, had an opportunity to take a trip out to West Bay and see what it looks like after the flood.

The tide was high and a storm was fast approaching, but what we did see was a fast flow of water through the diversion into West Bay, a flow that may be as much as three times the average discharge of the Colorado River. With this high flow of water we also potentially get enough sediment to build new land.

Dr. Kolker and others are currently conducting research to measure the amount of sediment that was deposited in West Bay during the spring. For now we’ll have to wait and see if positive strides were made during this one year, but what we do know is that in order to preserve the economy, ecology and way-of-life in southern Louisiana we have to reconnect the river with its delta.

Learn more about the work NWF is doing to protect the Mississippi River Delta>>

1. Highlight of the Week: Comments on Keystone
2. Quote: Representative Bob Inglis (R-SC)
3. Economic Story of the Week: USDA Grants Help Farmers Face Climate Change
4. Editorial of the Week: Solutions: Time to rethink flood control
5. Declining Snowpack Strains Water Resources
6. Climate Change Could Intensify Wildfire Impacts
7. Happening this Week

Subscribe to the Climate Capsule RSS Feed to have your weekly update delivered automatically!

Highlight of the Week

Comments on Keystone

via Rainforest Action Network

More than forty Northeastern conservation groups, representing close to 1 million area residents, are expressing strong opposition to a controversial tar sands pipeline known as Keystone XL. In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, they emphasized the massive carbon pollution the pipeline will generate and the damage it would do to the Obama Administration’s clean energy aspirations.

“Residents and businesses across the Northeast want to get off oil and build a clean energy future,” stated Daniel Gatti, staff attorney, Environment America. “The last thing we need is to rely on even more destructive sources of fuel, such as tar sands sent down from Alberta, Canada in the proposed XL pipeline.”
Upon the close of the public comment period for the State Department’s second round of environmental review of the potential pipeline, more than a quarter of a million Americans had written to oppose the proposal, stating that the U.S. does not need and cannot risk a pipeline carrying dirty, toxic and corrosive tar sands crude oil from Canada to the Gulf Coast.

The Environmental Protection Agency gave the Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement (SDEIS) a rating of “insufficient” citing a failure to adequately address several key issues, including pipeline safety, carbon pollution, impacts to water and wildlife, and environmental justice concerns. Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts also sent a letter to Secretary Clinton, asking the State Department to reopen the comment period, citing concerns over pipeline safety and the recent spills on existing tar sands pipelines.

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Quote:

via Yanov/Flickr

“Conservatives typically are people who try to be cognizant of risk and move to minimize risk. To be told of risk and to consciously decide to disregard it seems to be the opposite of conservative. What I hope to do is be a part of an effort that calls conservatives to return to conservatism and to turn away from the populist rejection of science.”

- Representative Bob Inglis (R-SC) on new conservative coalition to address climate change.

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Economic Story of the Week

USDA Grants Help Farmers Face Climate Change

via Conservation Commission

A recent Oxfam International report states that climate change is affecting the amount of crops farmers can harvest, causing food prices to soar, which could have devastating effects on the world’s hungry populations. The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization also stated that climate change will tighten water supplies for agriculture.

According to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, sustaining a growing population in the face of climate change uncertainty means farmers worldwide need to increase the overall sustainability of food production. The United States Department of Agriculture is working to reduce carbon pollution while also generating new revenue streams for farmers. More than $7.4 million, funded in part by the department’s Conservation Innovation Grants, will go to nine projects in 24 states that involve creating income opportunities through carbon markets.

Natural Resources Conservation Service, an agency of the USDA awarded the Delta Institute and National Wildlife Federation a three-year Conservation Innovation Grant. The project team will use the $400,000 award to help farmers sell pollution reduction credits for implementing nutrient management practices in Illinois, Michigan, and Oklahoma. Nutrient management practices like improved fertilizer timing and cover cropping will not only credits by reducing harmful nitrous oxide emissions, but also enhance water quality and farmer profitability.

“We’re excited to support farmers implementing practices that benefit wildlife, our global climate and farmers’ bottom lines,” said Eliav Bitan, agriculture advisor for NWF. “This project will teach us many valuable lessons about the best ways to work with farmers to help them implement practices that will protect wildlife for our children’s future.”

More on this story: Reuters, E&E News

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Editorial of the Week

SOLUTIONS: Time to rethink flood control

(The Center for Public Integrity)

Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries

We owe it to the victims of the 2011 Mississippi flood to learn the lessons of this not-so-natural disaster so we can do a better job protecting the nation’s river communities in the future.

Climate research tells us that we need to prepare for even greater volumes of floodwaters on the Mississippi in the future. Will we prepare for this future or will we consign Mississippi River communities to misery even greater than in 2011? ….It is time to learn the lessons from such successful experiments, as well as from the unnatural disaster that played out yet again this year on the Mississippi. (More…)

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Declining Snowpack Strains Water Resources

Coulter Sunderman

Snowpack in the Rockies has decreased gradually over the last three decades in an unusual pattern that, according to a U.S. Geological Survey study, can be attributed to climate change. While this past winter saw heavy snowfall that caused flooding, the overall trend has been toward less and less snow.

The study, which was based on tree-ring studies that look back hundreds of years, noted that the increasing role of warming would have fundamental impacts on stream flow and water supplies across the western U.S. Snowmelt in the Rockies feeds the Colorado, the Columbia and the Missouri, three river systems that provide water resources for 70 million Americans. The rate at which the snowpack melts is critical to provide a steady supply of water. Variability of both amount and rate of melt is already affecting the frequency of both flooding and drought in the West and causing concern for future water resource management.

More on this story: Reuters, NPR, NY Times

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Climate Change Could Intensify Wildfire Impacts

via graceyheart/Flickr

This year, in regions across the country marked by exceptional drought, preventing and controlling wildfires has been a losing battle. Arizonans, for example, fought a raging wildfire that has scorched more than 480 square miles of the state and sent smoke all the way to Iowa. Residents have been evacuated, flights have been diverted on account of heavy smoke, and air quality alerts have been issued. In Texas, more than 400 homes have burned across the state amid severe drought and high winds since November. Twenty-seven wildfires were reported in a single four-day period last month in New Mexico.

While it is not possible to attribute a single weather event to climate change, recent events have many drawing a link between climate change and the surge in droughts, floods, heat waves and other extreme weather events. Scientists warn that the trend of larger and more severe fires will only get worse as a result of climate change.

But climate change is not only projected to make wildfires more common. A new study released in the online journal PLoS One reports that warmer climates may also make wildfires more potent in releasing carbon and nitrogen pollution from soil.

More on this story: PLos One, Wildlife Promise

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Happening this Week

Thursday, June 16

14th Annual Congressional Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency EXPO + Policy Forum, 9:30 AM – 4:30 PM, 345 Cannon House Office Building (Cannon Caucus Room)

Markup of energy and water appropriations bill, House Appropriations, 9:30 AM, 2359 Rayburn

Hearing on air pollution and public health , Senate Environment and Public Works, 10 AM, 406 Dirksen

Hearing on DOE’s clean-tech programs, Science, 2 PM, 2318 Rayburn

Hearing on pipeline safety, Energy & Commerce, Energy and Power subcommittee
9:30 AM, 2322 Rayburn

Saturday, June 18

Netroots Nation, Progressives vs. Polluters: Standing up for the EPA, 1:30 PM, Panel, L100 FG

Coming up…
Tuesday, July 5th

Deadline to Urge the EPA to set strong limits on mercury pollution from power plants to protect wildlife and our health.

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For more global warming news on Wildlife Promise click here.

June is Great Outdoors Month!

June 3, 2011 – Some people can’t get enough time outdoors, surrounded by nature’s gifts and being refreshed by a world of green. Others need a little more nudging to get outside, and if there was ever a time to be encouraged to open up that door, it’s the month of June. That nudging starts at the very top with President Obama proclaiming June as Great Outdoors Month, along with almost every state governor. The Presidential Proclamation urges all Americans to spend time in the great outdoors and to uphold our nation’s legacy of conserving our lands for future generations.

Learning To Manage, Not Fight, the Mississippi River

June 2, 2011 – When the floodwaters of the swollen Mississippi River subside, experts say it may be a perfect opportunity to re-evaluate our relationship with the river. The opening of the Morganza Spillway in mid-May is not only helping ease the rising river, it is diverting nutrient-rich sediment to Louisiana’s rapidly deteriorating wetlands. This might demonstrate how more diversions and working with the river, instead of against it, may be the best way to battle the rising waters in the future.

Get A Crewcut! Support NWF’s Gulf Restoration Efforts

June 2, 2011 – J.Crew, clothing manufacturer and retailer, wants to make sure wildlife in the Gulf receives the protection it needs, which is why the company is supporting National Wildlife Federation. Crewcuts, the company’s children’s line, is currently donating funds to NWF by selling a children’s tee shirt in stores and online for $25. NWF is receiving the net proceeds from the sale of the tees.

Proposed Drilling Operations in Cuba Threaten the Gulf of Mexico

June 1, 2011 – More than a year since the Gulf oil disaster, the rush to pursue expanded deepwater drilling is picking up momentum. The long-term impacts of the nearly 206 million gallons of spilled oil are still unclear. New concerns regarding wildlife species continue to arise. But another threat has also emerged. In an effort to discover new reserves of oil and gas, Cuba plans to drill five deepwater oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico this summer.

And here are highlights from NWF in the News:

• The Hill: GOP rejects Obama’s call for ‘Sputnik’ moment on clean-energy development
• PR Newswire: 50+ Groups Urge Congress to Reject $1 Billion in Cuts to USDA Conservation Programs

For more, visit www.nwf.org/News