Iconic, vast and essential, the Mississippi River Basin is the third largest watershed on Earth. It is North America’s Amazon. It encompasses over 40% of the contiguous US, spanning 31 states & two Canadian provinces. Sixty percent of all the fresh water flowing into the Gulf of Mexico comes from North America’s Amazon.

 

The importance of North America’s Amazon is not just national; it plays a global role in climate change, the water cycle and ocean acidification.

 

 

Millions of people and billions of dollars depend on the benefits it provides, from national and international commerce and transportation, recreation and tourism to hurricane defences, clean air/water and climate change mitigation. North America’s Amazon generates this value despite the fact that over the last 100 years it has been depleted, altered and degraded.

The southernmost region of the Mississippi River Basin is the most ecologically degraded region in North America—originally 24 million acres of forest, now only 5 million acres remain. In Louisiana’s coastal areas alone, every hour the loss of wetlands is an area the size of a football field.

Our restoration of 1M acres will reduce America’s climate footprint by 2% CO2e, start to reverse the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, reduce risk, make communities more resilient, enhance health and wellbeing, create jobs, improve livelihoods, provide a sense of place and reaffirm cultural heritage. The total integrated value of the project will be billions of dollars.