"Picture an hourglass lying on its side, the top resting in the Mississippi River to capture the sands of time floating downstream from the Midwest. The sand flows through the neck of the hourglass and empties into Barataria Basin, where scientists predict it will create and nourish freshwater marshes and saltwater wetlands to stave off an expected dramatic loss of Louisiana’s coast over the next 50 years."

"Environmental groups in Florida are warning that unusually high numbers of manatee deaths in the first five months of the year, blamed in part on resurgent algal blooms contaminating and destroying food sources, could threaten the long-term future of the species."

"A former Florida Department of Health employee has received whistleblower status a year after being fired for repeatedly violating the agency’s policy about communicating with the media."

"The Department of Health announced this week that Little Alabama Bayou, about 20 miles west of Baton Rouge, has fish with unsafe levels of mercury, a heavy metal that can stunt brain development and inflict long-term damage on the kidneys and heart. The bayou runs through the Sherburne Wildlife Management Area, a popular fishing destination."

"A floating mat of muck on the surface of Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp, home to rare carnivorous pitcher plants, blooming lilies and countless alligators and insects, looks like any other patch of mud from a distance."

"Brian Kelly, a panther biologist for the state of Florida, opens a creaking gate near Fisheating Creek, a narrow ribbon of preserved land just west of Lake Okeechobee."

"A federal judge ordered an immediate halt on Thursday to plans to dredge a shipping channel on the Georgia coast, citing a threat to sea turtles nesting on nearby beaches."