Environmental News

Birding column: Limpkin are being spotted outside Florida, including two in Iowa.

The Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Task Force, a partnership formed in the late 1990s with the goal of reducing the size and severity of the hypoxic zone, currently is co-chaired by Iowa Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig.

Alliant Energy battery system is capable of storing enough energy to power 5,000 homes for two hours. Electricity travels across the power grid at the speed of light, so it must be generated and consumed at the same time. Battery storage helps keep the grid balanced by preserving energy when demand is low and releasing it as needed.

Like the Great Lakes initiative, it would operate within the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and provide hundreds of millions in federal funding to groups throughout the 10 states including Iowa along the river.

Unlike other earthworms — which are also not native to the region — these worms are not good for the soil. Jumping worms have a voracious appetite, feasting on the leaf litter in gardens and forests and depleting nutrients in the soil.

State officials want to develop a drought plan that would include a trigger point to call for precautions, such as water rationing. Iowa has been ruled highly vulnerable to drought in part because crops are not irrigated.

Hunting for flathead catfish and other ‘creatures’ can be challenging.

Samples taken from the Iowa lake tested for the presence of the amoeba; results to come