This Week at Interior November 22, 2024

This Week at Interior  

Secretary Haaland and Assistant Secretary for Insular and International Affairs Carmen Cantor visited Colombia this week, to highlight the importance of international cooperation to conserve biodiversity, safeguard wildlife, and honor Indigenous communities. Throughout their visit, they met with officials and partners to discuss native species conservation and international collaboration to combat illegal wildlife trafficking – the poaching, smuggling and illegal trade of protected species.  
Secretary Haaland met separately with Colombian Indigenous leaders and Afro-Colombian Indigenous youth to talk about shared priorities for climate resilience, access to nature, and equity and economic opportunity for Indigenous communities in the region.

The delegation also traveled to Colombia’s Amazon region to highlight the United States’ work to advance biodiversity conservation in collaboration with local communities, entrepreneurs and territorial authorities, to create sustainable livelihoods. The visit follows President Biden’s trip to Brazil earlier in the week -- the first visit to the Amazon rainforest by a sitting American President.    

Acting Deputy Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis represented the Interior Department at COP29 this week in Baku, Azerbaijan -- that’s the 29th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Throughout the trip, she met with international leaders and stakeholders to highlight Interior’s commitment to tackling the climate crisis with collaborative, science-based solutions. She also participated in several U.S. hosted events on the inclusion of Indigenous Knowledge in policy making, the value of Tribal co-stewardship, the importance of using nature-based solutions to address climate impacts, and strengthening Indian Country through the President’s Investing in America agenda.  

During the visit, the Acting Deputy Secretary announced the launch of an enhanced digital Nature-Based Solutions Roadmap in partnership with Duke University. This resource will serve as a user-friendly, accessible publicly available guide for practitioners and site users to learn about opportunities to incorporate nature-based solutions in their work, including over 400 case studies of nature-based solutions projects taking place in the United States and internationally.

Interior and the Bureau of Reclamation released next steps in the effort to develop Post-2026 Operations for the Colorado River. Five alternatives will be analyzed that represent a wide range of proposals submitted by Basin states, Tribes, cooperating agencies and non-governmental organizations, and reflect ongoing conversations with all basin stakeholders. Since Day One of the Biden-Harris administration, Interior has led critical discussions over how to bring the Colorado River back from the brink of crisis in the face of a 24-year drought.

Interior and the Bureau of Reclamation this week also announced a $125 million investment in five projects in California and Utah through President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to help create new sources of water and improve drought resiliency. The Large-Scale Water Recycling program, launched with funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, allows western communities to build and expand infrastructure to recycle vast amounts of water to meet growing needs. Reclamation is investing a total of $8.3 billion from the Law over five years for water infrastructure projects, including rural water, water storage, conservation and conveyance, nature-based solutions, dam safety, water purification and reuse, and desalination. Since the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was signed in November 2021, Reclamation has announced more than $3.5 billion for more than 530 projects.     
The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement this week announced more than $4.9 million for Kansas to address dangerous and polluting abandoned mine lands, create good-paying, family-sustaining jobs and catalyze economic opportunity in coal communities. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provides $11.3 billion in AML funding over 15 years.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is inviting the public to comment on an environmental analysis of five wind lease areas off of California’s central and north coasts, which includes the first U.S. lease areas identified for future floating offshore wind development. The projects have the potential to produce over 4.6 GW of offshore wind energy, enough to power over 1.5 million homes.

This week marked World Fisheries Day, recognizing the important role that fisheries play in feeding people, while helping make for healthier oceans. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service raised and stocked 126 million fish this year, removing more than 100 barriers to help fish migrate freely. It also invested $4.9 million through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for the early detection and eradication of invasive species and helped ensure a safe and healthy national aquaculture industry.

And our social media Picture of the Week, a snapshot of the past at Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. For more than 700 years, the Ancestral Pueblo people built thriving communities on the mesas and in the cliffs here, before abandoning the site some 700 years ago. Today, the park protects the rich cultural heritage of 27 Pueblos and Tribes, offering visitors a spectacular window into a long-lost world.

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That's This Week at Interior!