Highlights: "The Department of Everything" (Round 1)

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act in 2023, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a series of eight posters highlighting federally-listed species that have been the focus of long-term recovery efforts. The digital portraitist for the project was Cal Robinson, a public affairs specialist with the Service’s Sacramento Fish and Wildlife Office.

Featured here is an endangered California condor (Gymnogyps californianus), North America’s largest bird of prey. By 1982, only 23 condors existed worldwide. In an attempt to avoid extinction, all extant wild condors were placed in a captive breeding program, with reintroductions back into the wild begun in 1992. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service leads the California Condor Recovery Program involving many governmental and nongovernmental entities, including the Yurok Tribe and several zoos and wildlife societies. There are now five condor reintroduction sites: one in Arizona, three in California, and one in Mexico. The current population is approximately 500, and condors can once again be seen soaring in such national parks as Bryce Canyon, Grand Canyon, Pinnacles, and Zion. Shown in this print is Condor 550, a female born at Pinnacles National Park in central California in 2010. She was successfully treated for lead poisoning—the primary threat to condors—and has since hatched chicks of her own.

The Interior’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) originated with the 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. OSMRE’s primary responsibilities are working with states and tribes to regulate coal mines and reclaim abandoned mine lands. In carrying out these missions, OSMRE not only develops technologies but also provides technical assistance and forms key alliances.

One such coalition is represented in this poster. Through the Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative (ARRI), OSMRE has since 2009 collaborated with industry, academia, environmental organizations, landowners, and agencies in eight eastern coal-producing states to plant native trees on reclaimed coal mine lands. Reforestation efforts promote timber production, jobs, recreation opportunities, improved wildlife habitat, and better water and air quality.

National Conservation Lands may consist of National Monuments, National Conservation Areas, Wilderness Areas, Wilderness Study Areas, Wild and Scenic Rivers, National Scenic and Historic Trails, and Conservation Lands of the California Desert. With outstanding ecological and cultural resources, they also provide critical habitat for numerous species, plus abundant opportunities for recreation and scientific research.

Among all of the Bureau of Land Management’s National Conservation Lands, Arizona’s Sonoran Desert National Monument offers the most biologically diverse desert in North America. It is a landscape of extremes, hosting highly adaptable flora and fauna—from saguaro cacti to herds of javelina. The monument’s 486,000 acres include three Congressionally-designated wilderness areas and a culturally significant trail corridor—now, the Juan Bautista de Anzo National Historic Trail—reflecting hundreds of years of use for travel, trade, expeditions, and settlement.

This print was one of three developed in 2022 by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to illustrate the triad of prominent components of its mission: oil and gas, marine minerals, and renewable energy.

This depiction of an oil platform represents BOEM’s role on the Outer Continental Shelf areas of the United States, a significant source of oil and gas for the nation’s energy supply. BOEM manages more than 2,280 active oil and gas leases on approximately 12.1 million acres of the Outer Continental Shelf. Offshore Federal production of oil and gas—of which almost all comes from the Gulf—accounts for approximately 15% of all domestic oil production and 2% of domestic natural gas production.