This Week at Interior June 2, 2023

Transcript:

Hi, my name is Marie Frías Sauter and I’m the Superintendent at White Sands National Park, and you’re watching This Week at Interior. 

This Week at Interior 

Secretary Haaland this week took action to protect the cultural and historic resources surrounding Chaco Culture National Historical Park from new oil and gas leasing and mining claims. A new order withdraws public lands within a 10-mile radius of the national park for 20 years, subject to valid existing rights. The move responds to decades of efforts from Tribes, elected officials, and the public to better protect the  sacred and historic sites and Tribal communities currently living in northwest New Mexico.  

Interior this week announced plans to infuse $161 million into ecosystem restoration and resilience on the nation’s public lands as part of the President’s Investing in America agenda. The Bureau of Land Management will spearhead the work, which will focus on 21 “Restoration Landscapes” across 11 western states —ranging from wildlife habitat restoration in the sagebrush steppe of the high desert, to re-creating wetland meadows, to repairing watersheds on former industrial timberlands. 

In celebration of Great Outdoors Month and National Trails Day, Secretary Haaland announced the designation of nine new national recreation trails in nine states. That adds 340 miles to the National Trails System, managed by the National Park Service. The newly designated trails join a network of more than 1,300 existing national recreation trails, which can be found in every U.S. state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.  

Interior this week announced that nearly $725 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is available to 22 states and the Navajo Nation to reclaim abandoned coal mine lands. The law provides a total of $11.3 billion in abandoned mine land funding over 15 years through the Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement, which will help communities create good-paying jobs and catalyze economic opportunity while cleaning up dangerous environmental conditions. 

Assistant Secretary for Water and Science Tanya Trujillo joined other federal officials, as well as state, local and Tribal partners to celebrate the Taylor Slough Flow Improvement Project ribbon cutting this week. The project will increase the flow of clean, freshwater to the Florida Bay, where it is needed to balance salinity levels and promote ecological health.  

The Bureau of Indians Affairs is celebrating a milestone this week, the approval of the 100th Tribal regulation under the Helping Expedite and Advance Responsible Tribal Homeownership Act of 2012. The HEARTH Act promotes Tribal self-determination by making a voluntary, alternative land-leasing process available to federally recognized Tribes. 

The National Park Service this week awarded 14 grants totaling approximately $3.4 million through the Japanese American Confinement Sites grant program. The grants will fund a variety of projects aimed at preserving and interpreting the history of Japanese American incarceration during World War II. 

A new study from the U.S. Geological Survey and its partners shows how Yellowstone's grizzly bear population is adapting to a changing ecosystem. Grizzlies need substantial body fat to withstand months of hibernation, even as their traditional food sources have diminished due to climate change and human activity. The study shows grizzlies have learned to shift to other available food sources within the Yellowstone ecosystem to maintain the same levels of body fat. 

And our social media Picture of the Week, the promise of a new day at Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge, where sunlight burns through the fog and bursts through a burl oak tree on a serene Minnesota morning, casting light upon magnificent wildflowers. 

Make sure you follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. 

That's This Week at Interior 

This Week: Secretary Haaland takes action to protect the cultural and historic resources surrounding Chaco Culture National Historical Park; Interior infuses $161 million from the President’s Investing in America agenda into ecosystem restoration and resilience; the Secretary designates nine new national recreation trails, just in time for Great Outdoors Month; Interior announces the availability of $725 million to clean up legacy pollution from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law; Interior leaders cut the ribbon for an Everglades restoration project; the Bureau of Indian Affairs celebrates a new milestone under the HEARTH Act; National Park Service awards grants aimed at preserving and interpreting Japanese American confinement sites; Yellowstone's grizzly bears find new sources of food in the face of a changing ecosystem; and it's the promise of a new day in our social media Picture of the week!

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    04/11/2025

    This Week at Interior April 11, 2025

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    This Week at Interior

    President Trump this week signed Executive Orders aimed at achieving the Administration's goal of American Energy Dominance with a renewed focus on coal. One of the orders directs Interior to identify untapped coal resources on federal lands, while removing barriers to mining and leasing.

    The value of untapped coal in our country is one hundred times greater than the value of all the gold at Fort Knox, and we're going to unleash it and make America rich and powerful again.

    To advance the President Trump's order, Interior will implement a series of policy moves and regulatory reforms to position coal as a cornerstone of the nation’s energy strategy by ensuring federally managed lands remain open and accessible for responsible energy development. Secretary Burgum likened the actions to creating a new Golden Age of "Mine, Baby, Mine," saying that  

    Interior is unlocking America’s full potential in energy dominance and economic development to make life more affordable for every American family while showing the world the power of America’s natural resources and innovation.  

    Among the actions are ending the moratorium on federal coal leasing, reopening federal lands in Montana and Wyoming to coal leasing, removing regulatory burdens for coal mines, and providing royalty rate relief.  

    Interior this week announced the disbursement of more than $13 million in grants to support the reclamation of abandoned mine lands, furthering the Trump administration’s commitment to American Energy Dominance, environmental stewardship and economic renewal in coal communities. The funding is administered through the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, and it will support job creation and economic revitalization efforts in North Dakota, Tennessee and Texas.  

    Interior this week announced the release of updated oil and gas reserve estimates for the Gulf of America's Outer Continental Shelf. The new data and analysis over the last couple of years reveal an additional 1.3 billion barrels of oil equivalent since 2021, bringing the total reserve estimate to 7.04 billion barrels of oil equivalent. That figure includes 5.77 billion barrels of oil and 7.15 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Earlier this year, the Trump administration announced plans to significantly increase oil and gas leasing on the Outer Continental Shelf, and just last week Secretary Burgum directed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to hold the first Gulf of America oil and gas lease sale since its renaming in February.

    Secretary Burgum held his first All Hands meeting this week at Interior's historic Yates Auditorium. The Secretary saluted the notable accomplishments the Department has achieved in making the transition from the previous administration, and expanded on his vision that innovation, rather than regulation, is the cornerstone of American prosperity.

    The thing that has led our country for 250 years is innovation, doesn't matter whether it's the Agricultural Revolution, the Industrial Revolution our ability to innovate in a way that allowed us to win World War One and World War II and lead the world and become the world leader, all of it was innovation based, and we have to get back to those roots. That's how we win. That's how America wins in this world, that's how we win again for our children and our children's children, is we win with innovation.

    U.S. Geological Survey crews were deployed late last week and this week to monitor flood impacts after storms dumped heavy rain across portions of the southeast and Midwest. Crews are still hard at work gathering flood measurements in Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois and Ohio, as well as West Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi, where as much as ten inches of rain fell causing massive flooding. The gages provide information for the National Weather Service to predict when dangerous flooding might occur and allow for warnings to vulnerable residents, as flood crests will continue into early May.

    And our social media Picture of the Week, California's Battery Point Lighthouse. Perched on California's rugged northern coast, this historic beacon stands among the rocky outcrops of the California Coastal National Monument and has guided mariners since its first lighting in 1856.

    Make sure you follow us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and X! That's This Week at Interior!


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    News and headlines from Interior April 11, 2025

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