Dear Audubon Advocate,

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has renewed an unprecedented effort to build the wasteful, environmentally devastating Yazoo Backwater Pumps Project. You can take action today to help ensure this project—which would drain and damage 90,000 acres of wetlands in Mississippi’s South Delta—is abandoned once and for all. The comment period has been extended and will now end on August 27.

Mississippi Flyway wetlands are some of our nation’s richest habitats that support over 450 species of birds, fish, and wildlife, and are used by 29 million migrating birds each year¹. These areas must be protected.

In its latest plan for the Yazoo Backwater Area, the Corps has selected a “preferred alternative” that includes building the largest hydraulic pumping plant in the world and operating it to benefit industrial-scale agriculture. However, nature-based and non-structural solutions that don’t include pumps would provide effective, environmentally sustainable flood relief for local communities while benefiting wetlands and wildlife. 

Effective, commonsense flood relief measures, such as elevating homes and compensating farmers to restore cropland to wetlands, would help people and birds—solutions many local community members have asked for.  

Please tell the Army Corps to pursue a natural infrastructure solution—not the Yazoo Pumps—to protect local communities and birds that depend on the Mississippi Flyway.