This Week at Interior March 15, 2024

Hi, I’m Eric Verderber, Deputy Project Leader with the Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge...This morning we are at Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge, and you’re watching This Week at Interior!  

This Week at Interior

The Biden-Harris administration this week submitted the President’s Budget request for fiscal year 2025. That proposal includes a total of $18 billion for Interior, with critical, targeted investments in the American people that will promote greater prosperity and economic growth for decades to come. The proposal includes investments to support wildland firefighters and wildfire management; address challenges exacerbated by climate change; fight drought and address ongoing water challenges; strengthen Tribal Nations and support Indigenous communities; and create jobs while moving clean energy forward.  

Secretary Haaland, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Director Elizabeth Klein and Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement Director Kevin Sligh were in Long Island this week, to celebrate the completion of construction for the South Fork Wind project. At full capacity, the approximately 130-megawatt offshore wind farm will generate enough clean energy to power approximately 70,000 homes and will eliminate up to six million tons of carbon emissions over the life of the project, the equivalent of taking 60,000 cars off the road for the next twenty years.  

Secretary Haaland, Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Shannon Estenoz, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Martha Williams were in Florida this week, celebrating the establishment of the Everglades to Gulf Conservation Area.  The four-million-acre conservation area will provide crucial protected wildlife corridors, enhance outdoor recreation access to the public and bolster climate resilience in southwest Florida.  It's the 571st and newest unit of the National Wildlife Refuge System, which marks its 121st birthday this week.

Acting Deputy Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis was in Southern California this week, where she toured several projects funded through President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, aimed at addressing legacy pollution and advancing drought resilience. She visited two sites where the state is using $25 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to address methane-leaking orphaned oil and gas wells. She also visited the Goleta Water District, where a $2 million investment through the Bureau of Reclamation is supporting drought resiliency work to drill a new groundwater well, which will provide 800 gallons a minute, to the region.  

Interior this week celebrated congressional finalization of amendments to the Compacts of Free Association. The $6.5 billion assistance packages will provide 20 years of new economic assistance to the freely associated states: the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Republic of Palau, and Federated States of Micronesia. Secretary Haaland called the strong ties between the United States and the Pacific Islands the foundation of our engagement and presence in the Pacific.

Interior this week announced that more than $120 million from the President’s Investing in America agenda will fund 146 projects to help Tribal communities plan for and implement projects to tackle severe climate-related environmental threats to their homelands. This investment from the Inflation Reduction Act, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and annual appropriations is a critical step toward enabling Tribes to proactively plan to adapt to these threats and safely relocate critical community infrastructure.

Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland traveled to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota this week, where he highlighted the Investing in America agenda at the groundbreaking of the Oglala Dam Rehabilitation Project, which is funded by the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. That law is helping make crucial investments to protect downstream communities, improve dam safety, and restore an important local water supply for the Pine Ridge community. Overall, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law invests $13 billion directly in Tribes throughout the United States, including $250 million over five years to address irrigation, power systems, dam safety and water sanitation.

The Bureau of Land Management this week announced a draft plan to strengthen greater sage-grouse conservation and management on public lands. Greater sage-grouse rely on sagebrush lands for all aspects of their life cycle to meet seasonal needs for food, cover and reproduction. A local population may need up to 40 square miles of intact landscape to stay healthy. The plan is built on decades of partnership, research, and on-the-ground knowledge and experience in maintaining, protecting and restoring healthy sagebrush habitats.  

The National Park Service joined the U.S. Postal Service this week for the unveiling of the newest set of Forever Stamps at the Underground Railroad Visitor Center in Church Creek, Maryland. The stamps honor 10 courageous men and women who helped guide enslaved people to freedom via the Underground Railroad, a network of secret routes and safehouses in use before the Civil War.  

And our social media Picture of the Week, the magical colors and textures of the hoodoos at Utah's Bryce Canyon National Park. What are hoodoos? They're the mysterious rock formations that are formed by water and ice...and Bryce Canyon has more hoodoos than anywhere else on Earth.  

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That's This Week at Interior.