In Louisiana’s Cancer Alley, a legacy of resistance lives on.
In the River Parishes, at the site of the largest slave revolt in history, a new generation is fighting for a cleaner future.
Recent Posts
Mississippi River named the most endangered of 2025 by non-profit American Rivers
With budget losses to both the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers, mitigation grant programs to address riverine flooding could be impacted substantially. According to FEMA, every federal dollar spent on flood mitigation yields $7 in benefits.
Down the Drain: A watershed moment for America’s greatest wetlands
The Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, a journalism collaborative based at the University of Missouri School of Journalism in partnership with Report for America, publishes an examination of how legal and policy changes will impact wetlands in the basin.
One Iowa landowner fights to farm a designated wetland. Others could face consequences downstream
The 1985 “Swampbuster” law — which has protected millions of acres of U.S. wetlands from being cleared and plowed — is being challenged in court.
A Mississippi flood relief project could harm 90,000 acres of valuable wetlands. Is it worth the tradeoff?
The Yazoo Pumps project purports to reduce flooding while protecting farmers and minimizing environmental harm. But concerns over wetland degradation have stymied past, smaller versions of the project.
Framing wetlands as a flooding solution won bipartisan support in Wisconsin. Could it work elsewhere?
Communities across the state are testing the economic value of grant programs to build new wetlands that reduce flooding risk. In the upper Midwest, researchers found that wetlands save nearly $23 billion a year that would otherwise be spent combating floods.
‘A living laboratory’: An accidental delta taught Louisiana scientists how to rebuild wetlands
While the science is clear – wetlands have lots of benefits and we know how to build more of them – the future is not. The growing Wax Lake Delta provided data for the now-stalled Mid-Barataria sediment diversion, which is designed to rebuild wetlands in nine parishes along the Louisiana Gulf Coast.
opinion
For hidden wonders, visit wetlands near you
Learn more about the Mississippi River Basin’s wetlands from coastal Louisiana to the headwaters in Minnesota.
Dark Resurrection
Prisoners come to terms with the return of capital punishment in Louisiana.
It’s not a teacher raise, voices against Amendment 2 emphasize
As Louisiana restarts executions, stories about the state’s death penalty — from condemned men, victims, families, and those who work in the death chamber.
Our kids deserve better: vote NO on 3
“Accountability is about helping someone take responsibility and change,” Malcolm Jenkins writes “It’s about making sure they never go back down that same road again. And for kids, that only works when you treat them like kids.”
PODCAST
Behind The Lens episode 271: ‘Death warrant’
Nick Chastil and Katy Reckdahl on working conditions at Angola’s Farm Line, with an eye on summer heat, and execution in Louisiana, following the first state execution in more than a decade.
About the Lens
The Lens aims to engage and empower the residents of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. We provide the information and analysis necessary to advocate for more accountable and just governance.