The final plan, released last week by the Environmental Protection Agency, calls for a reduction of the Gulf dead zone to less than 5,000 square kilometers through a series of specific, practical and cost-effective voluntary actions. To meet this goal, the White House plan calls for increases in financial and technical assistance for landowners implementing conservation measures and to reduce polluted runoff into the basin. When the algae die and decompose, oxygen levels plummet. Last year, Wisconsin Congressman Ron Kind led 40 members of Congress in support of legislation to reduce polluted runoff in the Upper Mississippi River Basin-a major source of the nutrients reaching the Gulf. Stein also suggests greater federal funds for floodplain habitat restoration, including funds to buy floodplain land from willing sellers.
Dams are especially harmful to trout streams because they slow and warm the water.
Our goal is to help citizens learn how to get dam removal considered as an option on its own merits where it's appropriate. Many dams are up for new permits, and in many cases the choice is repair or destroy. Most times, tearing down a dam is more economical and better for the ecology. Already, people in more than 25 states have requested the tool kit. Back to Top Looking for the Buffer Zone State environmental and conservation organizations are pitching new standards to control non-point source pollution into state waterways.