North Dakota is one of four states chosen for a federally funded pilot program to spur more interest in farmers to reduce their carbon footprint. Through a USDA grant, the Alliance to Advance Climate-Smart Agriculture will offer farmers and ranchers in the selected states $100 an acre or animal unit to implement conservation practices, such as cover crops and no-till farming. The federal government has longstanding cost-sharing programs for these efforts, but it s not easy for all producers to get approved. .
The timber industry is pushing back against the Biden administration s proposal to limit commercial logging in the nation s last old-growth forests. The move announced last month would put restrictions on harvesting within a small fraction of lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service. .
Advocates are making slow but steady progress to clean up a portion of the Columbia River named a Superfund site by the Environmental Protection Agency. Toxic pollution dumped by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for more than 40 years at Bradford Island contaminated fish in the area, which are used as sustenance by the region s Indigenous people. .
The latest research reveals alarming levels of contamination in northeastern Tennessee waterways, by the chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS. Many communities and ecosystems are exposed to PFAS in soil, surface water, groundwater and air. Dan Firth, chair of the solid waste and mining committee for the Tennessee chapter of the Sierra Club, said they collected 20 water samples from lakes and rivers around Kingsport and Johnson City, and about 60% tested positive for the substances, often known as "forever chemicals" because they do not degrade over time. .