RiverMap web site

A new web-based map and database of the Mississippi River highlights work by organizations and individuals to address practices contributing to formation of the Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico.

Every summer this area in the Gulf becomes void of life due to severely depleted levels of oxygen in the water, a state known as hypoxia. The condition kills every oxygen-dependent sea creature within its zone. In 2005, the Dead Zone was slightly smaller than the state of Connecticut. The Dead Zone is caused by excess nitrogen and phosphorus that is washed into the Gulf from the Mississippi River. RiverMap.org is an online database and interactive mapping system that was launched in October. The Leopold Center is a project partner with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Mississippi River Basin Alliance, the Green Lands Blue Waters project, and the Sustainability Institute.

More than 40 organizations and government entities have contributed to RiverMap thus far, providing information on their efforts to address hypoxia. Organizations contribute by completing a survey on the web site, which catalogues the information into the database and makes it available on-line.

“The good news is that there are many organizations up and down the Mississippi River working on nutrient management and hypoxia. But with a 2,300-mile river and a basin that touches 31 states, it is difficult to measure the impact of these efforts, as well as coordinate information and work,” said Jeri Neal, who leads the Leopold Center’s Ecology Initiative and has been working on the RiverMap project.

Goals of the project are to:

• Promote individual efforts to address hypoxia throughout the Basin,

• Educate and inform the public and potential partners about hypoxia,

• Create new partnerships to reduce the size of the hypoxic zone in the Gulf,

• Help shape more effective public policy, and

• Spark conversations and collaborations that will help focus attention and resources on areas that hold the greatest promise for the greatest impact.

Organizations involved in efforts to address hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico are encouraged to add their information to RiverMap by filling out the survey form at www.rivermap.org.

Future plans for the web site include the addition of examples of farmers throughout the basin who have adopted best management, perennial cropping and other practices to improve water quality and watershed health. The project, which began two years ago, is supported by grants from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Bush Foundation and McKnight Foundation.

For more information, contact Neal at (515) 294-5610, or wink@iastate.edu.