Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Journalist Madeline Heim

The Mississippi River is the nation’s most endangered river, a national conservation group says, because of federal plans to cut flood relief programs as severe weather threats grow. American Rivers, a nonprofit environmental advocacy organization, has issued an annual list of U.S. rivers it views as most at-risk for the past 40 years. The Mississippi’s place at the top comes as communities along the lower river flooded from torrential rain in early April, and as Trump administration officials consider eliminating the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, which helps state and local governments respond to disasters.

The Sny Magill Unit of Effigy Mounds National Monument, near Clayton, Iowa, contains one of the densest collections of ceremonial and burial mounds still existing in North America. But the river has significantly eroded the bank they're built on, eating away at some of the mounds at the water's edge. A multimillion-dollar bank stabilization project proposed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could protect them.