This Week at Interior August 27, 2021

Transcript:

This Week, at Interior 

Celebrating Women's Equality Day. It was 101 years ago this week that the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was certified, granting women the right to vote nationwide. Secretary Haaland, the first Native American Cabinet Secretary and the third woman to lead Interior, saluted the progress that's been accomplished, including the inauguration of the first female Vice President. But she acknowledged how far we have to go to achieve full equality. 

As we continue to work for more representation, equal pay and equality, we must ensure that all women, including trans and LGBTQ+ women, have opportunities to live their lives authentically without the burdens of systemic discrimination.

The Secretary was the keynote speaker this week at the 25th annual Lake Tahoe Summit. The summit brings together elected officials, policy makers, federal agencies, the private sector, and local community leaders in California and Nevada to collaboratively address environmental problems facing the Tahoe Basin. 

Interior crews were on the scene this week in the northeast as Tropical Storm Henri made landfall in New England. The storm's heavy rains caused flooding as far south as New Jersey, and USGS crews were deployed to keep tabs on water levels. Fish and Wildlife personnel were still assessing flood damage at several refuges and Interior law enforcement on hand to provide assistance to FEMA. 

Interior this week announced that the Bureau of Land Management is seeking public input on a commercial-scale wind energy facility proposed for BLM-managed public land in southern Idaho. The Lava Ridge Wind Energy Project has the potential to generate 1,000 megawatts of wind energy. The Biden-Harris administration has committed to increase renewable energy production on public lands and waters, including a target goal of permitting at least 25 gigawatts of onshore renewable energy by 2025. 

The Fish and Wildlife Service this week published its final regulations governing the annual Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp Contest. Starting with the 2022 contest, Duck Stamp entries will no longer be required to include a waterfowl hunting reference in the art work. 

"Did You Feel It?" is the signature phrase of the U.S. Geological Survey, and if you were anywhere east of the Mississippi ten years ago this week, that answer is probably yes. On August 23rd, 2011 a 5.8 magnitude earthquake centered in Virginia rang the eastern third of the country like a bell, with shaking felt from the Carolinas to Canada, from the coast well into the Midwest. An estimated 70 million people experienced the earthquake, the most ever in North America. While it caused as much as $300 million in damage, not a single death or serious injury was reported. 

She's served for the last fifteen years in the Main Interior Building's Wellness Center, now Barbara Hayden is retiring this week after a nursing career spanning more than four decades. Nurse Hayden has provided a large range of preventative health services to Interior employees with a smile. Last March she traveled to Wisconsin to take part in FEMA’s mass COVID-19 vaccination clinic. 

And with our social media Picture of the Week, we're wishing a happy 105th birthday to the National Park Service, officially founded this week in 1916. There's no better image to mark that occasion than this stunning view of bison making their way through the colorful hot springs of Yellowstone, the world's first national park. 

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That’s This Week, at Interior. 


 

This Week: Secretary Haaland celebrates Women's Equality Day, marking 101 years since women gained the right to vote with the 19th Amendment; the Secretary speaks at the 25th annual Lake Tahoe Summit, which brings together California and Nevada stakeholders in the name of collaborative conservation; Interior crews were on the scene as Tropical Storm Henri made landfall in New England; the Bureau of Land Management is seeking public input on a wind energy facility proposed for southern Idaho; the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service publishes its final regulations governing the annual "Duck Stamp" contest; it's been ten years since the "most felt" earthquake in U.S. history; after a 40-year nursing career Interior's Barbara Hayden is retiring; and it's happy 105th birthday to the National Park Service in our social media Picture of the Week!