Environment

The Tennessee Iris Festival Iris and Horticulture Show is Friday and the David Johnson Chorus performs Saturday. Festival Board Member Christy Oliver has the scoop on all the other Festival events this week in Dresden. She speaks with Tracy Ross on Sounds Good. The festival runs from April 27 through May 4.  Click here for more information and a schedule of events.

Flash floods destroyed more than two dozen homes in the Dover, Tenn. area this weekend.

Stewart County Emergency Management Agency Director Clint Mathis estimates around $2 million in damage to Stewart County residences. Mathis said the majority of the damage occurred in the Carlisle community. He said the displaced residents are receiving aid at area churches.

Mathis said along with the flooded homes, the county’s road network was also “severely impacted.”

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will hold five public meetings across the South to hear people's opinions about using genetically modified crops on wildlife refuges as food for migrating waterfowl. Until this year, farmers working under a cooperative agreement could plant such crops on 44,000 acres, about 1 percent of the land in 129 refuges across 10 states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The agency's Southeast Region barred biotech crops after environmental groups sued. 

Illinois farmers still can't begin planting their corn crops thanks to the heavy rains that inundated the state in recent weeks and turned their fields to mud. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says that as of yesterday there's been no significant planting done in Illinois because many fields are simply too wet for farmers to get out in them in tractors.

Water levels at Lake Barkley are six feet higher than normal thanks to weekend rain.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers expects levels to reach 365 feet mean sea level. Natural Resource Program Manager for Lake Barkley Mike Looney said the water is rising at a slower rate after increasing the amount of water flowing through Barkley Dam, but rain later this week could complicate things.