Farmers can use far less chemical fertilizer — which can be expensive and harmful to the environment — and maintain high crop yields, according to a new study. The findings of a new, long-term academic study may lay some farmers’ fears to rest: farming regeneratively, or farming in ways that benefits soil, water and air quality, doesn’t
CENTRALIA, Ill. — It was supposed to be a fun weekend getaway to celebrate Mandi Miller’s 30th birthday. She and her husband, Austin Elkins, chose an Airbnb on Lake Centralia in Illinois that was dog-friendly, a must for the suburban St. Louis couple. Just moments after arriving on an unseasonably warm September day, their beloved
A century ago, people throughout the Midwest could hear the high-pitched staccato call of the ivory-billed woodpecker echoing in old-growth forests throughout the Mississippi River basin, from Montana to Louisiana. Now that call has been permanently silenced. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently declared 23 species, including birds, freshwater mussels and a flower, extinct.
When it rains on a farm here in central Illinois, the water that runs off into local streams and rivers carries with it excess nutrients leftover from fertilizer. Those nutrients eventually flow into the Mississippi River and, ultimately, into the Gulf of Mexico. And while you can’t see them with the naked eye, those nutrients
Millions of rural residents across the Midwest are at risk of nitrate contamination in their drinking water, but they might not know it. Many rural residents get their drinking water from private wells, which are not regulated by state or federal governments. And if residents aren’t regularly testing their well water, they could be at
Amid a push from the Biden administration for U.S. agriculture to help slow climate change, a new study shows farmers in the Corn Belt are dropping the ball on adopting a climate-friendly practice. A mountain of research shows the benefits of planting cover crops — from sequestering carbon from the environment to keeping waterways
The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Public Health are warning residents to be on the lookout for toxic blue-green algae for those planning summer activities in Illinois’ lakes and streams. The algae has already been detected in the Illinois River at the Starved Rock Lock & Dam. According to the press release, summer
SPRINGFIELD — Illinois is the latest Midwestern state to earmark funding for a program to reduce nutrient runoff from farmland into waterways. It’s the first time the state has dedicated money to its Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy (NLRS). Twelve states within the Mississippi River basin have similar strategies in place, and some, like Iowa, have
BROADLANDS — When it rains on Joe Rothermel’s central Illinois farm, most of the water drains into the nearby East Branch Embarras River. There, it begins a journey south through the Wabash, Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. As it flows through more and more farmland, fertilizer runoff — which once nourished crops — compounds the water’s