This Week at Interior February 9, 2024

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This Week at Interior  

Secretary Haaland visited North Carolina this week to spotlight the impact of the President’s Investing in America agenda and the Department’s ongoing commitment to funding ecosystem restoration and conservation efforts, including at the Pocosin  Lakes National Wildlife Refuge and the Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge. She joined U.S. Geological Survey Director Dave Applegate to meet with scientists from the Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center and later hosted a partner roundtable with Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Director Elizabeth Klein to discuss the Department’s ongoing work to spur a robust offshore wind economy off the Carolina coast.

As part of the Secretary’s trip to North Carolina, the Department announced more than $157 million from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to restore our nation’s lands and waters through locally led, landscape-scale restoration projects. The funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will support 206 ecosystem restoration projects in 48 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Territories and will advance the Department’s ongoing work across several restoration and resilience programs, including a new sagebrush keystone initiative that aims to restore wetlands, reduce tree encroachment, and control invasive species threatening sagebrush ecosystems.  

Nearly $18 million in new investments from the President’s Investing in America agenda will ensure the ready source of native seeds to combat climate change and enhance landscape resilience. Native plant communities across the U.S. are threatened every day from habitat loss and other climate related impacts, such as longer wildfire seasons and other extreme weather events. The new investment will advance Interior's new National Seed Strategy Keystone Initiative, which Secretary Haaland and Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning unveiled this week during remarks at the National Native Seed Conference.  

Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Water and Science Michael Brain visited projects in Utah receiving funding from the Bureau of Reclamation from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law this week. The Davis & Weber Counties Canal Company project will enclose part of an open canal to more efficiently transport water. The Davis Aqueduct Parallel Pipeline project will install parallel pipelines next to Davis Aqueduct to allow for maintenance redundancy. Both projects aim to improve public safety.  

Interior this week announced nearly $7 million to advance climate resilience and restore lands and waters through impactful ecosystem restoration work in the U.S. Territories. A $3.8 million investment from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will support programs and projects in American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam to advance biosecurity efforts, restore coastal areas and flora ecosystems and support the eradication of invasive species. Another $3 million from the Inflation Reduction Act will help Puerto Rico in combatting climate change.  

Interior this week launched a pilot program to strengthen local governments’ wildfire response by converting vehicles to wildland fire engines. This program – funded with an initial $5 million investment from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law – will help small, remote emergency response agencies quickly expand their wildfire response capacity as they continue to face the devastating impacts of climate change, drought and intensifying wildfires.  

The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement this week announced more than $5.8 million in funding from the President’s Investing in America agenda to address dangerous and polluting abandoned mine lands in Missouri. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocates a total of $16 billion to address legacy pollution, including $11.3 billion for abandoned mine land reclamation.

Cold temperatures off the coast of Florida sent U.S. Geological Survey scientists into rescue mode. Together with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, USGS biologists and volunteers pulled more than 60 cold-stunned green sea turtles out of the water and off the beaches at St. Joseph Bay, transporting them to Gulf World Marine Institue for rehabilitation. Cold sea turtles can't swim, which makes them susceptible to drowning, or easy prey for predators. The turtles will be released back into the Gulf of Mexico once the water gets warm again.  

It was this week back in 1871 that Congress first established the U.S. Fish Commission, to study why the nation's fishes were decreasing, and recommend ways to reverse that decline. Over the 153 years since, that agency has continuously evolved, finally becoming what is today...the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the nation's oldest agency dedicated to species and habitat conservation.

And our social media Picture of the Week, they are among nature's most social and playful creatures. River otters have big personalities and even bigger appetites. Often seen in groups, called romps, they can be observed hunting and frolicking year-round at Missouri's Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge.

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That's This Week at Interior.

 

This Week: Secretary Haaland spotlights Interior's commitment to ecosystem restoration and conservation efforts during a visit to North Carolina; Interior announces more than $157 million from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to restore our nation’s lands and waters; new investments will ensure a ready source of native seeds to combat climate change and enhance landscape resilience; new water infrastructure projects in Utah will improve public safety; Interior announces nearly $7 million to advance climate resilience and restore lands and waters in U.S. territories; the Department launches a pilot program to strengthen local governments’ wildfire responses; OSMRE announces more than $5.8 million in funding to address dangerous and polluting abandoned mine lands in Missouri; cold temperatures off the Florida coast send USGS scientists into rescue mode; we mark 153 years of service for the nation's oldest conservation agency; and if it's not one thing, it's an otter 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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