This Week, at Interior
Department of the Interior staff joined Indigenous youth, Tribal leaders, and community partners
in New Mexico to celebrate the launch of the Indian Youth Service Corps.
That’s a new partnership-based program that will provide meaningful education, employment
and training opportunities to Native youth through conservation projects on public and
Indian lands, and Hawaiian homelands – putting young people on a path to good-paying jobs
while working to tackle the climate crisis.
In Idaho this week Secretary Haaland joined the Nez Perce Tribe, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to commemorate the transfer of fish production
at Dworshak National Fish Hatchery to the Tribe.
The transfer has been 20 years in the making and underscores the Biden-Harris administration’s
commitment to empowering Indigenous communities and supporting Tribal trust responsibilities.
While in Idaho, Secretary Haaland announced $9 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
funds to support more than 40 projects to restore and conserve strategic areas within
the sagebrush ecosystem.
These projects will combat invasive grasses and wildfire, reduce encroaching conifers,
safeguard precious water resources for neighboring communities and wildlife, and promote community
and economic sustainability.
Deputy Secretary Tommy Beaudreau wrapped up a western state visit by joining local leaders
and the Montana Conservation Corps to spotlight a new $68 million investment through the Bipartisan
Infrastructure Law for local ecosystem restoration partnerships across the country.
During his trip the Deputy Secretary also highlighted Interior investments in wildfire
resilience, and increased access to the outdoors.
Secretary Haaland this week named representatives to Interior’s first-ever Secretary’s Tribal
Advisory Committee.
The committee will ensure Tribal leaders have direct and consistent contact and communication
with current and future Interior officials.
She shared the update during virtual remarks at the National Congress of American Indians
annual mid-year conference.
Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland was in Anchorage Alaska this week
to speak to NCAI as well.
He provided updates on the historic investments Interior is making in Indian country infrastructure
thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
He also discussed Interior's work to tell the story of the Federal Indian Boarding School
system.
The Indian Affairs Office of Indian Economic Development this week announced it's awarded
$7 million in grants under the Living Languages Grant Program to 45 American Indian and Alaska
Native Tribes and Tribal organizations.
The Living Languages Grant Program provides an opportunity for Tribes to receive funding
to document and revitalize languages that are at risk of disappearing because of a declining
native-speaker population.
Interior this week issued final approval for the construction of two solar energy projects
in California.
The Arica and Victory Pass solar projects in eastern Riverside County will support up
to 1,000 jobs and generate up to 465 megawatts of power.
It's another milestone in the Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to modernize America’s
power infrastructure in the West and permit at least 25 gigawatts of solar, wind and geothermal
production on public lands by 2025.
A team of scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration are exploring the Escanaba Trough.
That's a slowly spreading ocean ridge 200 miles off the coast of California.
The goal is to improve our understanding of hydrothermal systems as they change over time,
as well as our understanding of the geological and biological characteristics of these deep-sea
environments.
And our social media Picture of the Week, the signs of the season along the Blue Ridge
Parkway.
The parkway runs 469 miles from Virginia's Shenandoah National Park to the Great Smoky
Mountains National Park in North Carolina, where the pink and purple of blooming rhododendrons
every June herald the arrival of summer.
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That's This Week, at Interior.