In The News: Federal shutdown threatens environmental research, resource management up and down Mississippi River

As the government shutdown drags on with no end in sight, we’d planned to write about how it’s impacting the freshwater sciences as researchers are sidelined at the National Science Foundation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey and other agencies. But the La Crosse Tribune beat us to it. Here’s an excellent article from new environment reporter, Jennifer Lu. 

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service mussel biologist Megan Bradley inspects a tank of Higgins eye pearlymussels, a federally endangered species. Bradley and colleagues at the Genoa National Fish Hatchery are essential federal employees working without pay during the shutdown. Photo: Jennifer Lu

GENOA — U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service mussel biologist Megan Bradley has been working without pay since the longest government shutdown in U.S. history began more than three weeks ago.

The animals Bradley has been rearing at the Genoa National Fish Hatchery to restore mussel populations native to the Upper Mississippi River — some of them federally endangered — are too important to let die. 

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