Can man vs. nature continue to live together?
Pollution ranges from industrial dumps to agricultural runoff to city sewage, and affects plants, fish, birds, and animals that depend on the river’s water, forests and wetlands. Stricter environmental standards are helping to reduce the negative human impact on the Mississippi. Wildlife refuges, national parks, government and community agencies are working to do their part, as do the hunters and trappers through licensing and regulated control of the balance of nature. On the water itself, the necessity of commercial navigation is matched by the need for protection from natural disasters. The river is controlled through a series of locks and dams along the upper river, miles of levees protecting riverfront properties in the South, and jetties stretching out into the Gulf of Mexico. In today’s clamor for government and corporate funding, money for environmental projects may prove to be limited. Ultimately, it may be the work of private individuals such as Chad Pregracke and groups like
