Missouri conservation staff tracking peregrine falcons in Kansas City
Peregrine falcons could become a more common sight in the Kansas City area and elsewhere statewide as the conservation department's peregrine falcon nesting program takes flight.
Overland Park residents can apply for property tax rebate starting this weekend
Kansas City was included in the nesting program in 2019, and this month, the department has been providing updates as it works to grow the population of peregrine falcons in the state, a species labeled a 'conservation concern.'
Earlier this month, conservation department staff and a representative from the U.S. Department of Agriculture met up on the rooftop of the Shook, Hardy and Bacon law firm building in Kansas City to place leg bands on three peregrine falcon chicks living in a nesting box. The department shared on Facebook recently that they offer the nesting boxes as a safer alternative for falcons that have historically built their nests on cliffs and ledges.
Leg bands have been placed on several young falcons this month, the department said, in an effort to keep track of where the birds go once they leave the nest. The leg bands are large enough to fit the birds as they grow into adults and included identification numbers, the department said.
This week, the department included an update that staff members added leg bands to three more chicks, this time at Evergy's Hawthorn station in Kansas City.
'MDC staff recently banded peregrine falcon chicks at EVERGY's Hawthorn Generating Station in Kansas City,' the department posted on Facebook Wednesday. 'There were 2 males and 1 female, all in excellent health. EVERGY staff hold their newest family members with great pride.'
FOX4 Newsletters: Sign up for daily forecasts and Joe's Weather Blog in your inbox
Here are some facts about peregrine falcons, provided by the Missouri Department of Conservation and the Cornell Lab:
One of the world's fastest birds, peregrine falcons can reach speeds of 200 mph as they dive toward their prey from a high-up location.
The species was nearly eradicated because of side-effects of DDT and other pesticides in the middle of the 20th century.
They hunt starlings, pigeons and other smaller birds seen in the city.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
6 days ago
- New York Post
This summer fruit helps beat the heat while boosting heart health and brain health, experts claim
One summertime fruit doesn't just offer juicy sweetness – it can deliver a powerful hydration boost, support brain health and supply essential vitamins and antioxidants, experts say. One summertime fruit doesn't just offer juicy sweetness – it can deliver a powerful hydration boost, support brain health and supply essential vitamins and antioxidants, experts say. Peaches, which are about 89% water, outshine their stone-fruit counterparts like plums and nectarines in terms of hydration, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). They also pack in similar antioxidant benefits with fewer calories. Watermelon and cantaloupe top the charts for highest water content, but peaches follow closely behind, according to the USDA. Fruits that hydrate while also providing electrolytes can help the body better replace and retain fluids than water alone, research shows. The fuzzy fruits offer several electrolytes, plus many other nutrients. 'Peaches are rich in fiber, vitamin C and potassium,' Vandana Sheth, a Los Angeles-based registered dietitian nutritionist, told Fox News Digital. 'All of these nutrients help support digestion, heart health, and immunity.' 5 One summertime fruit doesn't just offer juicy sweetness – it can deliver a powerful hydration boost, support brain health and supply essential vitamins and antioxidants, experts say. A medium raw peach contains about 285 milligrams of potassium, an essential mineral and electrolyte that plays a critical role in nerve function, muscle contraction, fluid balance, heart health, and blood pressure management. That's more potassium than many popular electrolyte supplements and about 8.4% of the daily recommended intake for men and 11% recommended for women, according to the National Institutes of Health. Most U.S. residents consume too little potassium, which increases their risk of cardiovascular disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 5 Peaches offer several electrolytes, plus many other nutrients, according to reports. alter_photo – Peaches are also heart-healthy options thanks to their antioxidant content. They contain flavonoids, which help lower the risk of heart disease and support memory and cognition, and carotenoids, which can help fight inflammation and protect and restore skin. Early studies have indicated that the antioxidants can have potential anti-cancer effects, Sheth said. 5 'Peaches are rich in fiber, vitamin C and potassium,' Vandana Sheth (not pictured), a Los Angeles-based registered dietitian nutritionist, told Fox News Digital. LIGHTFIELD STUDIOS – The flavonoids and carotenoids also give peaches their distinct color. 'Peaches combine two groups of pigments that you don't often see together in other fruits and vegetables,' Mary Ann Lila, a distinguished professor in the Plants for Human Health Institute at North Carolina State University, told The New York Times. Raw peaches with their skin also provide about 4% of the recommended daily amount of vitamin A and 13% of the daily vitamin C needed, plus a few grams of fiber to aid digestion and gut health, Sheth said. 5 For those trying to limit sugar intake, pairing peaches – which contain up to 13 grams of natural sugar – with protein or healthy fats is key. Pavel Lysenko – 5 Raw peaches with their skin also provide about 4% of the recommended daily amount of vitamin A and 13% of the daily vitamin C needed, experts said. djoronimo – For those trying to limit sugar intake, pairing peaches – which contain up to 13 grams of natural sugar – with protein or healthy fats is key. This approach helps slow down sugar absorption and stabilizes blood sugar levels, added Sheth, who's also a certified diabetes care and education specialist. 'You can add chopped peaches to your morning toast with nut butter or into your cereal or yogurt bowl, blend it into a smoothie or try grilling peaches with a sprinkle of spice,' she recommended.
Chicago Tribune
7 days ago
- Chicago Tribune
Conservation practices needed to protect Illinois farmers as topsoil loss increases, experts say
As the deadline approaches for Congress to renew the U.S. Farm Bill, agricultural experts and farmers are calling on legislators to prioritize protecting topsoil in the Midwest and throughout the country, especially as the federal government is withdrawing from conservation initiatives. Topsoil is eroding, on average, at a rate of three-quarters of an inch per year in the Midwest, a rate double what the U.S. Department of Agriculture considers sustainable, according to a 2022 study published in the journal Earth's Future. The study also concluded more than 57 billion metric tons of topsoil have eroded in the Midwest over the last 160 years. 'Not to sound alarmist, but we rely and a lot of the world relies on the Midwest producing a lot of food,' said Evan Thaler, a geological researcher who helped author the study. 'Fertilizing crops can't keep up with the amount of productivity that's lost by erosion.' Topsoil contains living microorganisms and decaying plant roots that are important for productive crop growth. Excessive topsoil erosion can lead to a decrease in soil fertility levels and a decline in potential crop yields. No-till and reduced tillage farming, as well as cover crops, are among the best ways to counter topsoil erosion, experts say, especially as climate change has led to increased rainfall intensity. But under the Trump administration, federal support for these practices could be dramatically reduced. Some experts, including Andrew Margenot, an associate professor of crop sciences at the University of Illinois, have expressed skepticism about the figures in the study, particularly as they relate to erosion rates in Illinois. But Margenot called topsoil erosion a 'silent killer' whose worst effects may not become apparent for decades. Thaler said erosion rates aren't expected to be as severe in areas with flatter landscapes like much of Illinois. 'So it's not the whole landscape that's eroding quickly,' Thaler said of the Midwest. 'It's just portions of the landscape, but those portions of the landscape are eroding quite fast.' Regardless, experts agreed that excessive topsoil loss is an issue that poses long-term risks for the Midwest and requires assistance for farmers looking to implement conservation farming practices. 'It (erosion) is a way that we destroy really what is the best resource we have in this state,' Margenot said. 'We have a lot of wind, a lot of coal, etc., but we also have the best soils in the world.' Tillage clears crop residue from fields after harvesting and helps prepare the soil for seeding. The USDA notes that conventional tillage practices are most intensive on the soil and can increase the likelihood of erosion and nutrient runoff into waterways. In contrast, no-till and reduced tillage farming incorporate practices such as field mulching, crop rotation, as well as less-intensive tillage equipment. 'When they talk about 'conventional agricultural practices,' tillage is our No. 1 offender,' said Emily Hansen, a commercial agricultural educator with University of Illinois Extension. The 2018 Farm Bill — an omnibus bill that includes federal funding for conservation programs — is set to expire in September after having twice been extended by Congress. This reauthorization deadline comes after President Donald Trump immediately took steps to suspend funding under former President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act on his first day back in office. Billions of dollars earmarked under the act for farming conservation practices were frozen. This funding freeze came at a time when the impacts of topsoil erosion are becoming more apparent in Illinois. High winds over recently tilled farm fields likely contributed to a massive dust storm in May, the first to affect the Chicago area in 40 years. In 2023, a dust storm in central Illinois caused 84 vehicles to crash on I-55, killing eight people and injuring at least 36. Such incidents have helped to renew debates on agriculture's role in hazardous weather events and further discussions on the importance of topsoil conservation. Others emphasize that soil conservation is important for the long-term economic outlook of the U.S. Cash crops, hidden costs'For decades, we have rightly focused on protecting our most vulnerable soils,' said Garrett Hawkins, president of the Illinois Corn Growers Association, in a statement. 'However, IL Corn encourages decision makers to think differently, to consider how programs can better protect our most productive soils.' The association is a farmer-led organization that represents the interests of Illinois corn farmers in Washington, D.C., and Springfield. 'Conserving our most productive acres is essential if we want to stay competitive in global markets,' Hawkins said. 'Modernizing our approach to conservation and creating programs that empower farmers to protect their most valuable soils with flexible and scalable solutions is vital. If we fail to deliver effective programs, technical assistance, and meaningful funding to our farmers, soil health and soil erosion will continue to be a challenge.' The association developed the Precision Conservation Management program, which collects data and helps farmers adopt conservation practices. 'What they've found over the last five years of data is that the most profitable fields in Illinois are doing no tillage with soybeans and one pass or less with corn,' Hansen said. In most cases, she said, data has shown there isn't an economic or agricultural benefit for corn farmers to do more than one tillage pass over their fields. According to data from the University of Illinois, 46% of soybean fields in Illinois had adopted no-till during the years of 2015 to 2017 but only 13% of cornfields. Illinois is the No. 1 producer of soybeans in the U.S. and the No. 2 producer of corn. 'Corn is a lot more challenging and that's where we see people doing those multiple tillage passes,' Hansen said. 'Corn, it needs good contact with the soil, so you do have to do some amount of tillage with it. But you know more than one pass is probably overdoing it a bit.' Among the first to get involved with PCM was Dirk Rice, a corn and soybean farmer in Champaign County. Rice said the genesis of Precision Conservation Management was the desire to help address farmers' financial concerns when adopting conservation practices. 'If you want a farmer to shift away from a practice that he knows has worked for him for 20, 30 years, there's always a concern of 'How does that affect me, financially?'' Rice said. 'And so the idea was, let's look financially at how farmers are doing this practice compared to this practice, compared to this practice,' he said. 'And I think after a decade or more of data, what we're seeing is the people that are doing less tillage are at least as profitable.' Rice, who said all of his soybean fields are no-till and over 80% of his corn fields are no-till or strip-till (a less intensive form of tillage), noted some difficulty in dealing with potential fungi that can grow in corn residue. He also said grain quality has declined in certain situations where he's no-tilled. Despite such challenges, Rice said soil conservation has been a tradition in his family for generations through practices like crop rotation, and it's a tradition he intends to continue. 'I'm sitting on ground my great-great-grandfather moved (to) in 1881,' Rice said. 'It's real personal to me that I leave that better than it was when I got here. And I think every generation in our family has felt the same way.' Rice added that fertilizer is a huge expense for his farm's operation and keeping soil nutrients in place helps with these costs and reduces runoff. 'Anything I can do to keep all my nutrients in place, that's how much less I got to turn around and buy next year or somewhere down the road. So that's a real no-brainer to me,' Rice said. Along with no-till and reduced tillage, cover crops — plants grown when the main cash crop isn't planted — can help keep topsoil 'anchored in place' and mitigate erosion and nutrient loss, Hansen said. She said cover crops such as cereal rye, which has a similar root structure to native prairie grasses, can help prevent nutrient and fertilizer runoff into streams and rivers that ultimately lead into the Gulf of Mexico. 'Cover crops have multiple benefits. They're tackling that erosion problem, they're tackling the nutrient loss,' Hansen said. 'So I like telling farmers to plant cover crops, but easier said than done.' Margenot noted that most farmland in Illinois is rented and not directly owned by the farmers who cultivate it, which can complicate efforts to plant cover crops. Less than a fourth of Illinois farmland is owned by the farmer who works the land, according to data from the Illinois Farm Business Farm Management, a nonprofit association that helps farmers make management decisions. 'They're not farmed by the owner, and a lot of times the landlord just wants a check,' Margenot said. 'They don't have a patience for cover crops because that digs into the net profit.' Margenot compared cover crops to adding another ball for a juggler and said they 'complicate the operation' for farmers. While great at reducing nitrate losses from fields, Margenot said, cover crops aren't 'that common in the Midwest,' especially in Illinois, because 'they don't really make you money.' 'When it comes to the bottom line, farms are businesses. They have mortgages to pay kids to send to college. Cover crops are not a great proposition,' Margenot said. 'I think they're great ecologically and I think that they, in the long term, probably have a positive ROI (return on investment) for the farm. But in the short term there's good evidence that cover crops aren't a great financial decision for a lot of operations.' Margenot said a comprehensive Farm Bill needs to incentivize farmers and landowners to plant cover crops given the associated costs and complications to farm operations. Thaler, the erosion study author, agreed. 'We need to be able to feed people,' he said. 'And unfortunately, if we don't start farming in a way that conserves our topsoil (and) really take approaches to allow farmers to experiment with conservation techniques, then I think we're going to be in some serious danger.' Among federal programs included in the Farm Bill is the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, which provides technical and financial assistance for farmers implementing conservation efforts. Jonathan Coppess, director of the Gardner Agriculture Policy Program at the University of Illinois, worked on legislation for the 2008 and 2014 Farms Bills. 'What EQIP does is the farmer goes out and takes on a practice that will reduce soil erosion, like a grass waterway for example so you get a washout spot in a field,' Coppess said. 'So the farmer will go out and get that done, and then about 75% of the expected cost of that would be reimbursed, if you will, by USDA through this EQIP program.' 'There's a lot of uncertainty around' the upcoming Farm Bill, Coppess said. 'There was a significant amount of funding provided by Congress in the Inflation Reduction Act, about $18 billion over multiple years for programs like EQIP, and the (Trump) administration froze a lot of that.' In April, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to take immediate steps to reinstate this funding, citing a lack of authority on the part of the Departments of Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Interior and Agriculture, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency. Coppess described the short-term impacts of this funding freeze as 'potentially catastrophic' for farmers who spent money on conservation initiatives and who had expected reimbursement funding, especially if they had taken out a loan. 'If the administration eliminated whatever's remaining of that (Inflation Reduction Act) money, which may be as much as $12 billion, then over the long term that is a reduction in the investment in conservation,' Coppess said. 'We're investing in practices that will keep soil in the field, and get it out of the waterways, not have dust storms on the roads, those sort of things.' Coppess said 'every dollar that goes out the door' should have the priority focus of: 'Are we helping farmers deal with risk issues in farming that matter to the food supply?' Coppess said such an approach would require recalibrating crop insurance, repurposing subsidy funds for conservation and refocusing conservation funds on risk-based priorities; something he said wouldn't be easy and is 'a little idealistic for what we've seen in Congress recently.' Legislators need to focus more on how to address the long-term challenges faced by farmers, he said. 'Problem is that's not the conversation we're having,' Coppess said.
Chicago Tribune
19-07-2025
- Chicago Tribune
IUN professor receives USDA fellowship to help agriculture opportunities
One year ago, Jenny Fisher wasn't aware of the U.S. Department of Agriculture fellowship for university faculty nationwide. Now, the Indiana University Northwest professor is one of eight educators nationwide participating in the science program. 'More and more people are finding out about it and applying,' said Fisher, associate professor of biology. 'I am very surprised and thankful that they chose me, which I'm still kind of amazed they did.' The USDA selected Fisher as one of the 2025 E. Kika De La Garza science fellows. The E. Kika De La Garza program is part of the department's Hispanic-Serving Institutions National Program, according to its website. Fisher first learned about the program last fall, after a former USDA employee and regional contact told her about it. She applied in March and learned she was awarded the fellowship in May, Fisher said. With changes in federal government funding, Fisher didn't know if the program would continue. 'When everything was kind of being shut down by the government for a while was when I had applied,' she said. 'They paused it, and then we thought it would be canceled for sure, but they reinstated it, which is awesome.' Since initial worries, government funding changes haven't affected Fisher's fellowship, she said. The program partners with Hispanic-Serving Institutions nationwide to support the agricultural workforce through professional development, workforce development and exposure to opportunities for faculty, staff and students. 'To develop agricultural leaders in both the public and private sectors, HSIs must take positive steps to engage and create partnerships to build capacity,' Lisa Ramirez, director of USDA's Office of Partnerships and Public Engagement, said in a statement. IUN has been a Hispanic-Serving Institution since 2020, according to Post-Tribune archives, which means at least 25% of the school's full-time equivalent undergraduate enrollment is Hispanic. IUN is the most diverse of the Indiana University campuses, and about 30% of its students are Hispanic or Latino, according to the university. Through the designation, the university can receive more grant funding and opportunities. The E. Kika De La Garza program has three fellowships: education, high school education, and science. The program is named after former U.S. Rep. Eligio 'Kika' de La Garza of Texas. Through the fellowship, Fisher traveled to Washington, D.C. and Columbus to meet with USDA officials and collaborate in the department's Agricultural Research Service in the Soil Drainage Laboratories. Fisher has also met the other educators in the program, which she said has been helpful as she plans for the upcoming school year. 'We sort of all became fast friends and have been communicating about things as we've left for our homes or other places,' Fisher said. 'Building those relationships was an unexpected benefit of this experience.' With the fellowship, Fisher hopes to show students what career and internship opportunities are available through USDA. She also wants students to have more of an appreciation for agriculture. Through her work, she hopes students learn there is more to agriculture than farming. 'In my first year seminar, I teach them about agriculture and have them think about how it touches their life, how much we take for granted, how complex the process really is and how it's connected to almost every aspect of their lives. There are so many facets of it to consider.'
