This Week at Interior April 28, 2023

Hello, I’m Grant Beebe at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, and you’re watching This Week at Interior. 

This Week at Interior 

Secretary Haaland traveled to Boise, Idaho this week, as part of the Administration’s Investing in America Tour. She announced major new funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to restore our nations lands and waters and advance drought resiliency in the West. Interior is providing $125 million for locally led conservation projects throughout the country to build resilient, healthy communities in the wake of climate-related impacts, restore healthy lands and waters and advance Interior's restoration and resilience framework. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife is providing an additional $35 million for 39 projects to restore rivers and remove barriers for fish passage, expanding outdoor recreational opportunities and strengthening local economies. The Bureau of Reclamation also announced $140 million for water conservation and efficiency projects, to enhance the resilience of the West to drought and climate change.  

In Washington state Secretary Haaland and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland this week made their latest stop on The Road to Healing tour. The tour looks to address the tragic history of Federal Indian Boarding Schools.. Interior this week also announced a new inter-agency partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities to expand the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative through the collection of oral histories and digitization of records documenting the experiences of survivors and descendants of federal Indian boarding school policies. 

Assistant Secretary for Water and Science Tanya Trujillo visited Raleigh, North Carolina to highlight the Biden-Harris administration’s whole-of-government commitment to environmental justice. She joined the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Agriculture to announce the Walnut Creek Urban Waters Federal Partnership, and to kick off the White House Environmental Justice for All initiative. Raleigh is the 21st Urban Waters location since the program began in 2011. 

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management this week invited public comment on possible commercial wind energy development in areas offshore Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine. The call is an early step in the planning and leasing process, and helps advance the Biden-Harris administration’s goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030. 

Interior this week announced that more than $146 million in funding has been approved by the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission. That will provide the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and its partners the ability to help conserve or restore 242,000 acres of wetland and associated upland habitats for waterfowl, shorebirds and other birds across North America. 

National Park Week kicked off April 22nd, and National Park Service Director Chuck Sams hit the road to join celebrations at more than a half-dozen locations in Massachusetts and Kentucky. Director Sams unveiled a revised Green Parks Plan which provides an updated framework for sustainability efforts including an increase in renewable energy use, water conservation projects, electric vehicle charging stations, and water bottle filling stations. 

And our social media Picture of the Week, the blazing blooms of wildflowers blanketing the hillsides of Jawbone Canyon Off-Highway Vehicle Area in southern California. 2023 is shaping up to be a spectacular year for wildflowers, which bloom from coast to coast on hundreds of millions of acres of U.S. public lands. When viewing wildflowers across country be sure to leave them rooted in the ground, as picking them can disrupt the balance of nature and harm the pollinators, birds and wildlife that rely on them for food and shelter. 

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That's This Week at Interior.