Olivia Cohen

Jim Durbin’s database — built over the last 25 years through thousands of hours at Iowa’s parks — has been used to help research conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

The Iowa Department of Ag announced this week a pilot project that will provide $3 million to encourage farmers and landowners in the watersheds upstream from the Des Moines and Cedar Rapids metro areas to add perennial buffers to fields along streams.

As a PhD student at Iowa State University, Connor Thorpe modified the design of the classic gene gun using a 3D printer in his apartment. Now, he’s leading a biotechnology company that sells the product.

A fungal disease is spreading and growing in severity in Iowa, affecting the state’s corn production. A wetter than normal summer has helped Southern rust spread throughout the state.

An environmental group that advocates for clean water in northeast Iowa has filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit brought by the state against a Postville meatpacking over its repeated wastewater pollution violations.

Meteorologists with the National Weather Service are warning Eastern Iowans that triple-digit heat indexes are coming this weekend.

Less than a year after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency added segments of five Iowa rivers to the impaired waters list for nitrate, the same agency — now operating under the Trump administration — has rescinded the decision.

The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services has reported the first positive case of West Nile virus of the year in an adult in northern Iowa.

The Iowa Soybean Association and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have completed about 50 oxbows across the state through a partnership. That’s important because oxbows can prevent flooding, improve water quality and provide habitat for animals.

The City of Fairfax will consider a change to its zoning code that would provide a path for Alliant Energy to site a gas-fired power plant within city limits, near The Eastern Iowa Airport.

Five years ago, destructive prolonged wind gusts of up to 140 mph blew through Iowa, felling trees, flattening crops, ripping down power lines and tearing away building walls and roofs. It was the most costly thunderstorm in U.S. history. Derechos aren’t uncommon. What made this one so destructive? And how are derecho forecasts improving?

Government data, collected by the Iowa Environmental Council, shows some parts of Iowa are at higher risk of seeing wildfires — and they could see that risk increase in times of drought. What is the risk? And how can Iowans mitigate it?

NextEra representatives, during a meeting with nuclear regulators Thursday, said the Duane Arnold Energy Center near Palo, which closed in 2020, needs “a few major pieces of equipment” before it can restart, including cooling towers, the restoration of transmission lines, new offices, warehouse buildings and a new sewage treatment system.

During a summer that’s featured high-profile nitrate spikes in Iowa waterways and water use restrictions for thousands of central Iowans, hundreds of people gathered in Des Moines this week to listen to discussion about the findings of a comprehensive water study that was commissioned by Polk County.

In the first five years of Iowa City’s Root for Trees program, residents and businesses have purchased more than 1,600 trees — about 320 per year. The program opened applications for its sixth year this month.