SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN)

"New research suggests parasitic infections in US south are far more widespread than previously acknowledged"

"Academics, conservationists, nonprofits, government agencies—and one passionate, retired scientist—are working to rebuild reefs, reduce the carbon imprint and educate the public about the importance of restoring the oyster population."

"A federal agency said Friday that it has approved a plan to expand the Okefenokee Swamp’s vast wildlife refuge, setting up a potential buyout offer for land intended for a private company’s mining project that conservationists have fought for years."

"Residents argue the project will disproportionately impact majority-Black and -Hispanic communities in the Miami-Dade area."

"The Everglades ecosystem was degraded and transformed when a highway connecting Tampa and Miami was built in 1928, cutting through a mosaic of prairies, sawgrass marshes, freshwater ponds and forested uplands. Sections of the road are now being elevated to restore water flows into the Shark River Slough – a vital restoration area deep in the Everglades National Park."

"Jubilee Justice grows rice regeneratively while reclaiming the past."

"An invasive predator that can grow up to 20ft, weigh over 100kg and devour prey six times its size – it is enough to make anyone’s skin crawl. That’s what residents of southern Florida have been struggling with for the past few decades, with the rapid growth of the Burmese python population in the Everglades."

"You never forget your first time seeing a giant salamander, according to Andy Hill. He was a teenager, standing thigh-high in the Watauga River outside Boone, North Carolina, casting a line on an early fall day when he saw his first eastern hellbender. The salamander stretched 2 feet long and was camouflaged among rocks beneath the clear water."

"Velsicol, a legacy polluter that manufactured pesticides, is proposing to hand over its 83-acre defunct facility in North Memphis to Tennessee as an environmental response trust. Should the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) accept a settlement agreement from the company, the state will be left to determine what to do with wide-ranging contamination including a baseball diamond-shaped pile of hazardous waste and a fluctuating groundwater plume of chemicals beneath it."