Biden-Harris Administration invests more than $18 million in public lands projects as part of Investing in America Agenda
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WASHINGTON – Today, the Bureau of Land Management announced more than $18 million in shovel-ready ecosystem restoration and resilience projects on the nation’s public lands as part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda. This work will support 39 projects in 10 states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming. The announcement comes as the Biden-Harris administration celebrates the one-year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest climate investment in U.S. history.
Today’s announcement is part of the $161 million from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that the Department of the Interior previously announced in 21 Restoration Landscapes, building on the nearly $40 million the BLM deployed in these areas from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The list below reflects the first set of projects on the ground.
The projects include efforts to restore habitats, improve recreation experiences, reduce the threat of wildfire to communities, and leverage resources through government and community partnerships, including through work with Youth Conservation Corps.
“As the nation’s largest public lands manager, BLM is proud of our restoration track record, and thanks to President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, this once-in-a-generation investment enables us to significantly build on that work across the West,” said BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning, who visited a project site in the Blackfoot-Clark Fork Restoration Landscape, east of Missoula. “Focusing on restoration and partnerships at landscape scale allows us to work more deeply with local, State, and Tribal partners, deliver meaningful work for our public lands and waters, and multiply the return on investments in restoration on behalf of the American people.”
Selected projects focus on ecological need as well as importance to communities. These areas hold significant potential for additional cross-boundary partnerships and investments from Federal agencies, State, Tribal, and local governments, private landowners, and partner groups to support increasing the scope and scale of restoration work. The BLM will use the Assessment, Inventory and Monitoring Strategy to monitor outcomes and ensure restoration work is successful and long-lasting.
The projects announced today are collaborative and address landscape threats to habitat health, aquatic connectivity, fuel loads, and recreation experiences:
- In Alaska, $1.45 million will support stream segment restoration in the Birch Creek (Ikhèenjik River) and Fortymile Wild and Scenic River Restoration Landscape.
- In Arizona, more than $322,000 will fund vegetation treatments and other projects in the Sky Islands and Yanawant Restoration Landscapes.
- In California, $1.6 million will go to the Cosumnes Watershed Restoration Landscape for habitat improvements, exotic plant control, and expansion of a youth program that focuses on habitat restoration.
- In Colorado, more than $4.1 million will go to the San Luis Valley and North Park Restoration Landscapes for ditch and stream rehabilitation, wetland and habitat restoration, fish habitat, public lands resiliency, and volunteer recruitment.
- In Idaho, $160,000 will be used in the Snake River Plain Restoration Landscape for developing a Class I Cultural Resources Study to improve the baseline documentation of known cultural resources, as well as identify important future areas of study relative to new scientific discoveries and available technologies.
- In Montana, $1.5 million will go to the Blackfoot-Clark Fork Restoration Landscape and include partnerships with Clark Fork Coalition and Trout Unlimited for projects on the Lower Blackfoot and a collaborative project with the Blackfoot Challenge conservation group to protect threatened and endangered species.
- In New Mexico, $4 million will go to the Mescalero Sands Prairie Restoration project in the Lower Pecos Watershed Restoration Landscape.
- In Oregon, more than $1.3 million will go to projects in the Southwest Oregon and Southeast Oregon Sagebrush Restoration Landscapes for fuels reduction, improvements, rehabilitation, and chemical weed treatments.
- In Utah, $371,000 will go to the Color Country Converging Restoration Landscape for the Virgin River Watershed Contribution Program and rangeland fence repair.
- In Wyoming, $3.5 million will go to the LaBarge Restoration Landscape to address failing culverts and stock ponds, degraded sagebrush habitat, and incised stream channels; this includes restoration projects that will be conducted by the Youth Conservation Corps.
President Biden’s Investing in America agenda is growing the American economy from the bottom up and middle out by rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure, investing in nature-based solutions, and driving more than $490 billion to private-sector manufacturing and clean energy investments in the United States. As part of that, the Department is implementing more than $2 billion in investments to restore our nation’s lands and waters, which in turn is helping to meet the conservation goals set through the America the Beautiful Initiative.
The Restoration Landscapes and identified project funding in today’s announcement are included below:
| State | Restoration Landscape | Project | Funding Amount ($) |
|---|---|---|---|
| AK | Fortymile and Ikhèenjik River - Birch Creek | Restoration of stream segments | 1,450,000 |
| AZ | Yanawant | East Kanab Creek Vegetation Treatment Project - Cultural Inventories | 262,525 |
| AZ | Sky Islands | San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area Pre and Post Integrated Vegetation Management treatment data collection | 60,000 |
| CA | Cosumnes Watershed | Laguna Creek Exotic Plant Control | 300,000 |
| CA | Cosumnes Watershed | Expansion of Youth Habitat Restoration Program | 300,000 |
| CA | Cosumnes Watershed | Swainson's Hawk Habitat Conservation Easement | 325,000 |
| CA | Cosumnes Watershed | Giant Garter Snake Habitat Improvement | 250,000 |
| CA | Cosumnes Watershed | Pollinator Habitat Improvement | 150,000 |
| CA | Cosumnes Watershed | Riparian Forest Habitat Enhancement | 275,000 |
| CO | San Luis Valley | San Luis Valley Field Office Landscape-level Wetlands/Habitat Restoration, Enhancement, and Conservation Project; Blanca Wetlands | 2,000,000 |
| CO | San Luis Valley | Rocky Mountain Bird Conservancy | 35,000 |
| CO | San Luis Valley | McIntire Simpson Fish Restoration | 200,000 |
| CO | San Luis Valley | Native Fish Restoration (Shaw Reservoir) | 500,000 |
| CO | San Luis Valley | Public Lands Resiliency (volunteer recruitment) | 25,000 |
| CO | San Luis Valley | Public Lands Resiliency (project design, implementation, and crews, equipment various sites) | 50,000 |
| CO | San Luis Valley | Public Lands Resiliency (misc. signage, parking structures, gates, tools) | 50,000 |
| CO | San Luis Valley | Public Lands Resiliency (installation of signs, gates, boulders, road base) | 100,000 |
| CO | San Luis Valley | Public Lands Resiliency (metal kiosks, route marker - travel management) | 30,000 |
| CO | San Luis Valley | Public Lands Resiliency (trash collection contract for campgrounds) | 20,000 |
| CO | North Park | Hebron WMA Lateral B ditch rehabilitation | 332,500 |
| CO | North Park | Bolton Draw Meadow Restoration (Zeedyke) | 89,800 |
| CO | North Park | Stream Restoration | 621,500 |
| CO | North Park | Hebron Air Quality Monitoring | 85,000 |
| ID | Snake River Plain | Boise District Class 1 Survey | 160,000 |
| MT | Blackfoot Clark Fork | Aquatic Restoration Project - Lower Blackfoot Aquatic Restoration w/ Clark Fork Coalition | 500,000 |
| MT | Blackfoot Clark Fork | Aquatic Restoration Project - Nevada Creek Watershed w/ Trout Unlimited | 500,000 |
| MT | Blackfoot Clark Fork | T&E Project - Blackfoot Challenge | 500,000 |
| NM | Lower Pecos Watershed Restoration | Mescalero Sands Prairie Restoration | 4,000,000 |
| OR | SW Oregon | Sweden Creek Fish Passage Improvement -Coos Bay | 180,000 |
| OR | SW Oregon | Lower North Fork Riparian Restoration - Coos Bay | 190,000 |
| OR | SW Oregon | Russell Creek Sill Removal - Coos Bay | 50,000 |
| OR | SW Oregon | Fuels Reduction to Reduce Wildfire Threat to Communities - Medford | 600,000 |
| OR | SE Oregon Sagebrush | South Steens Chemical Weed Treatment | 307,000 |
| UT | Color Country Converging Landscape | Virgin River Watershed Contribution | 350,000 |
| UT | Color Country Converging Landscape | Areas of Critical Environmental Concern Fence Repair | 11,000 |
| UT | Color Country Converging Landscape | Range Fence Repair and Improvements | 10,000 |
| WY | Greater LaBarge Ecosystem Restoration Landscape | Wildcat Canyon Dam | 1,500,000 |
| WY | Greater LaBarge Ecosystem Restoration Landscape | Engineering Services for Greater Landscape | 1,000,000 |
| WY | Greater LaBarge Ecosystem Restoration Landscape | Youth Corps Agreement to Support Overall LaBarge Project | 1,000,000 |
The BLM manages about 245 million acres of public land located primarily in 12 western states, including Alaska, on behalf of the American people. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. Our mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of America’s public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.