"Man made levees line the banks of the Mississippi River and its tributaries. They protect towns and they allow farmers to plow the bottomlands. But levees come at a price: habitat destruction and worse flooding downstream. Now, more people are calling for taking down levees and returning floodplain areas to their natural state. Louisiana [is] the end of the line for the water that drains from the middle of the nation."

Samara Freemark reports for The Environment Report August 10, 2009. [2]