This Week at Interior August 23, 2024

I'm Dave Smith with the Office of Communications and we're here at the National Conservation Training Center...and you're watching This Week at Interior!

This Week at Interior

Secretary Haaland was in the Oval Office this week as President Biden designated Springfield 1908 Race Riot National Monument as America’s newest national park site — the eighth addition to the national park system during the Biden-Harris administration. The new national monument will help tell a more complete story of America by spotlighting the violent, racially motivated riot in President Abraham Lincoln’s hometown of Springfield, Illinois, in 1908, when rioters lynched two Black men, looted businesses, and burned down homes. The riot ultimately served as a catalyst for important steps in the civil rights movement.

Secretary Haaland and Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Shannon Estenoz were in Maine this week, where they highlighted conservation and preservation efforts underway through the National Park Service. They visited the Frances Perkins Homestead in Newcastle and held a community meeting to learn about the community’s vision for its care and management. Later they joined federal, state, Tribal and community members for a celebration and ribbon cutting at Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument for a new contact station, to provide visitors a location for orientation and information through exhibits designed with Wabanaki artistry and knowledge that explain the monument's landscape and significance.

The Department and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management this week announced the execution of the nation’s first floating offshore wind energy research lease in Maine. The research array will allow the state, fishing community, wildlife experts, the offshore wind industry and others to conduct in-depth studies and evaluate floating offshore wind as a renewable energy source in the region. BOEM also completed a wind energy auction last week for two lease areas offshore the states of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia -- that lease sale brought in more than $92 million in winning bids.

The Bureau of Reclamation this week announced a $7 million investment through President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to boost drought resiliency and efficiency in Texas and New Mexico. The announcement comes as the Department celebrates the two-year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act, which has delivered transformational investments for drought resilience across the West.  

The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement this week announced nearly $6 million to address dangerous and polluting abandoned mine lands in Iowa, while creating good-paying, family-sustaining jobs, and catalyzing economic opportunity. Millions of Americans live less than a mile from an abandoned coal mine – now more than $11.3 billion from the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is expected to address nearly all of the currently inventoried abandoned mine lands in the nation, which will help communities address and eliminate dangerous conditions and pollution caused by historic coal mining.

The U.S. Geological Survey this week officially opened its new Hydrologic Instrumentation Facility on the University of Alabama campus. The facility provides new opportunities for advancing water science and technology, with its team of about 50 USGS employees working alongside university students and staff, strengthening existing partnerships and creating new ones as it continues its tradition as the national hub for water monitoring technologies.  

Interior this week announced the Secretary’s establishment of the Willamette Valley Conservation Area in Oregon. The 600-acre parcel will protect crucial habitat for threatened and endangered species and comes about after extensive consultation between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Tribal Nations, state and local partners and private landowners. It's the 572nd unit of the National Wildlife Refuge System, and the fifth new unit established under Secretary Deb Haaland’s leadership.

Happy Birthday to the National Park Service, which turns 108 years old on August 25th, and a hearty thank you to the more than 20,000 National Park Service employees, who work tirelessly to care for America's 431 national park sites and work with communities across the nation to help preserve "America's Best Idea."    

And our social media Picture of the Week, the grassy meadows of Mount Rainier National Park in Washington come alive with the colors of wildflowers. Folks come from all around the world to see these brief but stunning blooms, which reach their peak in August.  

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That's This Week at Interior!