This Week at Interior  

Secretary Haaland joined President Biden at the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona this week on the President’s first trip to Indian Country. During their visit, the President issued an historic apology for the federal Indian boarding school era, spurred in part by the groundbreaking work conducted by the Department over the past three years through the Secretary’s Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative. A government acknowledgement and apology for the trauma inflicted by these schools and related policies was the top recommendation of the Department’s investigate report.

For decades this terrible chapter was hidden from our history books, but now our Administration's work will ensure that no one will ever forget.

After a hundred and fifty years the United States' government eventually stopped the program. But the Federal Government has never, never, formally apologized for what happened. Until today. I formally apologize as President of the United States of America for what we did. I formally apologize. (Applause)

Acting Deputy Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management Dr. Steve Feldgus joined the Bureau of Land Management in Reno this week to announce the approval of the Rhyolite Ridge lithium mine project, a major step towards the Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to strengthen domestic critical minerals supply chains. The project, located in southern Nevada’s Silver Peak Range, could supply enough lithium to power nearly 370,000 electric vehicles annually.

Acting Deputy Secretary Daniel-Davis also visited Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge this week, where she announced more than $6.5 million in funding from President Biden's Investing in America agenda to support wildland fire management in Colorado. It’ll help reduce risk from wildfires, support improved wildland firefighter training expand efforts to rehabilitate burned areas in collaboration with partners and advance wildfire science.

Interior this week announced $9 million in funding through the President’s Investing in America agenda for groundwater recharge, storage and recovery, and a water rights transition program in Kansas. Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Water and Science Michael Brain made the announcement at the Kansas Equus Beds Aquifer Recharge, Storage and Recovery Project near Wichita, which will receive $7 million.

The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement this week awarded more than $244 million to address dangerous and polluting abandoned mine lands, create good-paying, family-sustaining jobs and catalyze economic opportunity in coal communities across Pennsylvania. It's the largest annual state allocation under the Abandoned Mine Land program and part of a once-in-a-generation investment of $11.3 billion through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.  

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced it is downlisting the red-cockaded woodpecker from endangered to threatened status under the Endangered Species Act. This milestone is the result of five decades of collaborative conservation efforts between Interior, federal and state partners, Tribes, the private sector and private landowners that have resulted in increasing populations of these remarkable birds throughout their range.  

National Park Service Director Chuck Sams joined a celebration in Virginia’s Colonial National Historical Park this week, marking the completion of a $24 million shoreline restoration project supported by the Great American Outdoors Act Legacy Restoration Fund. Tides, storms, and sea level rise had altered a 3-mile stretch of the York River shoreline, resulting in severe erosion and shoreline loss that threatened archeological sites and the stability of a section of the Colonial Parkway.  

Sad news from Snake River Canyon, Wyoming, this week, where a well-known grizzly bear in the Greater Yellowstone Area was struck and killed by a vehicle. Bear 399, as she was known, was 28 years old and the oldest known reproducing bear in the local ecosystem -- she had fans and followers from around the world.  

And our social media Picture of the Week, this stunning image of Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness in Arizona. Visitors can find towering cliffs, flowing water, and a rich diversity of plants and wildlife, making it a unique destination for adventurers seeking solitude and stunning scenery.

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That's This Week at Interior!