This year, the University of Illinois is updating its climate action plan for the first time since 2015. In celebration of Earth Week, the university is releasing a draft of the plan Thursday. The main goal of the Illinois Climate Action Plan, or iCAP, is for the university campus to become carbon neutral by 2050….
UPDATED Friday 7:15 a.m. – Icy conditions forced some roads to close in Central Illinois and some schools to close or delay opening on Friday. Much of the area is also under a Wind Chill Advisory. Here are the latest closures: CHAMPAIGN COUNTY Champaign Unit 4 Schools – Closed Friday Heritage Unit School District #8…
The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Weather Advisory for Central Illinois, including Champaign-Urbana, Danville and Decatur. It is in effect Wednesday 11:00 a.m.-Thursday 10:00 a.m. Meteorologists are predicting the area will receive 4-to-6 inches of snow. Snowfall will be at its heaviest on Wednesday night. The advisory area includes Champaign, DeWitt, Douglas, Edgar,…
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – The air in parts of the Midwest and South has become so contaminated with the weed killer dicamba that it has caused widespread damage to soybeans and other crops in recent summers, testified Dr. Ford Baldwin, a professor emeritus of weed science at the University of Arkansas in federal court on…
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – In June 2018, Bill Bader’s grandson wanted a ripe peach to eat, so the two got in an all-terrain vehicle and drove to the area of Bader’s farm where the fruit would be about the size of baseballs, ready to eat fresh off the tree.
Since 1970, Bill Bader has worked on peach farms in Dunklin County, Missouri, just north of the Arkansas border. Bader started picking peaches at age 13, and in 1988, he established Bader Farms.
A new law passed last year requires the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to develop rules regulating the closure of ponds that store waste from coal-fired power plants. The agency released a draft rule in December, and stakeholders met Monday in Springfield to share their thoughts. Andrew Rehn with the clean water advocacy group Prairie Rivers…
The Illinois Department of Natural Resources is encouraging owners of solar energy fields to be more pollinator-friendly. Across the planet, bees and other pollinating insect species are disappearing at an alarming rate. That’s due in part to a loss of natural habitat space to humans. Now, as part of the 2018 Pollinator-Friendly Solar Site Act,…
A group gathered on the University of Illinois Urbana campus Friday to call for action to combat climate change. “Climate Strike Two” was a follow-up to the Climate Strike event held on the U of I campus September 20. That event was part of a student-led global protest calling for greater efforts to address climate change, and…
Illinois’ Department of Agriculture published its bi-annual study that looked at how to improve water quality by cutting down on pollutants that runoff into streams and rivers. Officials are mainly concerned with stopping excess nitrogen and phosphorus runoff. If too much of the stuff flows into a waterway, the chemicals can suck the oxygen out…
Over the last two years, Rob Van Vleet has been slowly scrapping the last vestiges of Kimball, Nebraska’s first wind farm. The wind turbines are made to…
Federal agencies are scrambling to establish regulations for hemp and hemp products as farmers in the Midwest and around the country start growing the…
It’s humid spring morning in the woods of central Missouri and Henry Domke is lining up a shot. His target? The vibrant petals of a red buckeye bloom. …
A Brazilian-owned meat processing company undercut its competition by more than $1 per pound to win nearly $78 million in pork contracts through a federal program launched to help American farmers offset the impact from an ongoing trade war. As a result, JBS USA has won more than 26 percent of the $300 million the…
Many organic farmers rely on plastic as a form of mulch, but it ends up in landfills. Biodegradable plastic could help, but some worry about its long-term effects on soil health and the environment.