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The Peabody River King State Fish and Wildlife Area
St. Clair County, Illinois
The Peabody River King State Fish and Wildlife Area is a twenty minute-drive from my house, a good place to get a handle on how energy extraction changes the landscape.
The Lower Kaskaskia River runs through an eroded till plain laid down by Illinoian glaciation [...]

Conflicting Demands: Levees and Cash

Illinois Congressman Phil Hare (D-Il) presented the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee with 7,000 signatures in support of raising the 50-year levees that protect farm land in Adams, Henderson, and Hancock Counties to the 500-year level.
I have had this rant before. A 500-year levee is an urban levee.
The New Orleans District of the Army Corps of [...]

Clean Energy and Mississippi River Turbines

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioon has issued 35 preliminary permits to 4 companies to install electricity generating turbines in the Mississippi, Atachafalaya, and Red Rivers in Louisiana. The FERC permitting process takes about five years, which means the turbines will not start producing electricity for another two or three years. FERC will hold hearings in [...]

Tornado Rips through the White River NWR

A tornado ripped through the White River National Wildlife Refuge on July 30, plowing a path a quarter to half mile wide, snapping off trees and creating havoc in a refuge that protects 160,000 acres of bottomland hardwood forest. Or not.
The debris left behind will attract wood-boring insects, which will attract birds and bears. Turkeys [...]