Darrell Hoemann/Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting
The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has slashed its staff almost in half over the past 15 years.
Darrell Hoemann/CU-CitizenAccess.org
Nearly 50 years ago, Illinois became the first state to adopt an Environmental Protection Act.
Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting
In 2016, Monsanto released its dicamba-resistant soybeans in the company’s largest ever rollout of a new biotechnology. But its accompanying herbicide – XtendiMaxTM herbicide with VaporGripTM Technology – was not approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency until several months later, leading some farmers to use other versions of the herbicide on their soybeans.
The Illinois Department of Agriculture has received 368 complaints so far in 2017, which are more alleged pesticide misuse complaints than in the previous three years combined, according to a review of a statewide database of complaints by the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting.
“We’re actually at the warmest part for the historical record for Illinois,” said State Climatologist Jim Angel, speaking to a crowd of about 60 at the Champaign Public Library on Tuesday. “This is a different climate for what our parents, grandparents or great grandparents would’ve experienced in Illinois.”
Darrell Hoemann
Keith Rohl remembers the day he was asked to lease the coal rights to his farmland in Homer, Illinois. It was 2009, a wet year for the crops, when he was lined up at the grain elevator with his neighbors hearing about the proposed Bulldog Mine for the first time. “The neighbors were all talking about, ‘You sell your coal rights, and you get to farm your land on top. You’re going to have all kinds of money and everything.’ And I thought ‘Boy, that sounds great to me, and I was ready to sign up,’ ” he said.
Darrell Hoemann
As a result of the Farm Bill passed by Congress a year ago, efforts to increase wildlife habitats and natural areas that filter fertilizer run-off will receive less funding and result in fewer acres of conserved land. As of December, there were 9,770 acres set aside in Champaign County for a program in which the federal government rents land from farmers for conservation purposes.
Claire Everett/CU-CitizenAccess.org
By Robert Holly/CU-CitizenAccess.org — Thousands of agriculture groups and independent farmers – including many from Champaign and other central-Illinois counties – are using a…
Alice Welch/USDAgov
By Maisie Sackett / For CU-CitizenAccess.org -- The city of Champaign has set a goal to be “a model for environmental sustainability.” But it…
