On May 12, the Biden administration announced that $68.4 million from Infrastructure Act funds were earmarked this year for conservation projects across the country, a majority of which are based in the Western United States. The money is the first installment of $1.4 billion allocated for ecosystem restoration efforts to be spent over five years.
The funding will be dispersed across participating agencies including the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey.
“President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is a once-in-a-generation investment that will allow us to restore healthy ecosystems across the country,” said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in a statement. “This is a strong step towards building a better America for people and wildlife, for generations to come.”
According to a press release from the Department of the Interior, the conservation projects receiving funding this year will “boost local economies, advance environmental justice and serve disadvantaged communities.” One of the key efforts, a representative of the Interior Department said in an interview, is working with Indigenous nations and communities on building native seed-saving capacity, a fundamental aspect of successful restoration projects.
The funds, set to go far and wide, were directed at projects that advanced a set of high priority projects for the department. For instance, building out a rapid response system to manage and address the current and future threat of invasive species.
“President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is a once-in-a-generation investment that will allow us to restore healthy ecosystems across the country.”
In a statement, the Interior Department pointed towards a wide list of other priorities, including chronically under-resourced efforts to work through backlogged maintenance at national parks and popular recreation sites. The funds will also go towards wildfire risk reduction, as well as mitigating hazards from mining.
The island of Maui in Hawai’i will see the largest single investment, with over $12 million going to Haleakalā National Park. An outbreak of Avian Malaria, carried by non-native mosquitoes, has pushed the Honeycreeper, an endemic forest bird, to the brink of extinction. Only 17 species and 500 individual birds remain. The infrastructure funds will also be spent on captive breeding and a wide-scale effort to eradicate the flu-bearing mosquitos through “mosquito birth control” — a technique historically used to prevent mosquito borne human diseases like Zika. At Haleakalā, this will be the first time the technique will be used on birds.
See the spreadsheet below to explore all of the projects in the West that are receiving Infrastructure Act money this fiscal year:
Theo Whitcomb is an editorial intern at High Country News. Email him a theo.whitcomb@hcn.org or submit a letter to the editor. See our letters to the editor policy.
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