FACT SHEET

Interior Department to Take Action 

to Restore Lands and Waters, 

Advance Climate Resilience

Through President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law 

and the Inflation Reduction Act, the Department of the 

Interior is putting people to work restoring our nation’s 

lands and waters with a $2 billion down payment that 

builds on existing Department programs and invests in 

locally led landscape, partner driven restoration. At a time 

when tackling the climate and biodiversity crises could not 

be more critical, this investment in clean water, clean air, 

wildlife habitat, cultural resources and open spaces will 

benefit people, wildlife and local economies for generations 

to come. 

The Department has announced a Restoration and 

Resilience Framework to support coordination across 

agency restoration and resilience programs and drive 

transformational outcomes with strategic investments 

that improve degraded lands and waters as well as 

advance climate resilience. The framework is anchored 

by restoration and resilience goals to guide Department 

funding toward collaborative, strategic and measurable 

ecosystem restoration benefits that will: 

Nested within the goals are an initial set of keystone 

initiatives, each focused on turning the tide on a conservation 

challenge. In selecting these initiatives, the Department 

considered key ecosystems where restoration efforts: 

1. align with priorities including improving biodiversity, 

climate resilience, and advancing co-stewardship and 

equity; 

2. are driven by a locally-led, collaborative restoration 

strategy in place or in progress; 

3. leverage funds from multiple Bipartisan Infrastructure 

Law or Inflation Reduction Act programs and can be 

coordinated with multiple partners; and 

4. where the Department has an opportunity to have 

transformational impact at scale. 

While these keystone initiatives will receive additional 

attention, the Department will continue to fund many 

initiatives and projects outside these areas. 

Address climate 

change impacts

including wildfire, 

drought and coastal 

flooding 

Restore healthy 

lands and waters

including rivers, 

wetlands, grasslands, 

islands and cultural 

resources

Enhance communities’ 

quality of life 

by improving outdoor 

spaces and addressing 

legacy pollution
RESTORATION AND RESILIENCE GOAL #1

Address climate change impacts including 

drought, wildfire and coastal flooding

DROUGHT

To advance drought resilient basins and support droughtstricken communities, the Department will coordinate with 

partners to leverage restoration actions, replace culverts 

that limit fish and other species movement to colder 

and deeper waters, and restore floodplains and riparian 

habitats. 

Keystone Initiative Drought: Klamath

To build and expand drought resilience in the 

Klamath Basin, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law 

and Inflation Reduction Act include dedicated 

funding for Klamath Basin restoration activities to 

reduce water loss and increase water availability. 

Through this keystone initiative, the Department will 

leverage additional funding across our programs as 

well as coordinate with Tribal and other partners 

to advance wetlands enhancement and post-fire 

restoration efforts in the Klamath. 

Climate change is driving longer, more frequent, and more 

intense heat waves, more volatile weather, record drought 

conditions, and wildfires that are increasing in frequency 

and severity. Coastal hazards such as hurricanes, sea-level 

rise, flooding, erosion and extreme storms threaten lives, 

health and property along our nation’s coasts. Protecting 

and restoring coastal habitats can buffer the worst of these 

impacts. The Department will invest resources in naturebased solutions to better safeguard communities, wildlife 

and ecosystems from extreme weather. WILDFIRE

To reduce the threat to communities from more extreme 

wildland fire, the Department will invest in fuels and 

invasive vegetation management, post-fire restoration and 

rehabilitation activities, and efforts to keep water on the 

landscape. 

Keystone Initiative Wildfire: Sagebrush

Half of the sagebrush ecosystem has been lost 

in the last 20 years, but over 30 million acres of 

core sagebrush habitat remains. To defend and 

grow these critical landscapes, the Bipartisan 

Infrastructure Law directs significant funding to the 

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to build ecological 

resilience in core habitats, particularly through 

preventing invasive annual grasses to reduce wildfire 

risk, reducing other negative impacts from fire, and 

advancing the Sagebrush Conservation Design. 

to migrate as sea levels rise, the Department will 

help recover salt marsh sparrow and many other 

coastal dependent species and communities. The 

Department is working in coordination with many 

partners, including the Atlantic Coast Joint Venture, 

utilizing salt marsh prioritization tools to rehabilitate 

and realign salt marsh habitat. 

COASTAL RESILIENCE

To foster resilience across coastlines and support robust 

economies and communities, the Department will work 

to restore coastal wetlands using nature-based solutions 

to improve coastal and estuarian habitats and increase 

resilience against hazards such as storm surge and sealevel rise, while protecting important natural carbon storage 

opportunities. 

Keystone Initiative Coasts: Saltmarsh

Salt marsh sparrow populations are in steep 

decline and by restoring existing salt marshes and 

protecting adjacent, inland areas to allow marshes 
America’s people, economy and wildlife rely on healthy 

lands and waters, and our open spaces are woven into 

our nation’s identity. Investments in conservation and 

restoration can reverse trends stemming from the 

twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. 

In coordination with the Administration’s America the 

Beautiful initiative, the Department is working toward 

a national goal for the stewardship of these resources. 

Interwoven with this goal is conserving and restoring 

cultural resources, and the Department is committed to 

upholding federal Tribal trust responsibilities, integrating 

local and Indigenous Knowledge, and co-stewarding 

natural resources and open lands, all of which serve to 

support Indigenous religions, customs and languages.

RESTORATION AND RESILIENCE GOAL #2

Restoring healthy lands and waters including rivers, 

wetlands, grasslands, islands and cultural resources 

RIVERS

America’s rivers and freshwater systems are the lifeblood 

of many communities, providing drinking water to local 

populations, serving as habitat for wildlife, and offering 

unparalleled recreational opportunities. 

Keystone Initiative Rivers: Arctic-YukonKuskokwim

As part of our effort to build resilient freshwater 

systems, the Department is working to develop 

baseline ecosystem information to inform salmon 

conservation, prevent invasive species through 

early detection and rapid response actions, foster 

natural river processes and connectivity and support 

ecological services for surrounding and downstream 

communities. To assess and restore salmon 

habitat in the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim basin, the 

Department is committing to a collaborative effort 

with Tribal partners to assess, monitor and restore 

physical and biological processes in the basin to 

benefit salmon habitat. 

ISLANDS

Island systems are incredibly biodiverse, yet their 

susceptibility to damages from invasive species and 

associated changes, such as to fire regimes, means they 

lead the nation in the number of species listed under 

the Endangered Species Act. Warmer and more acidic 

oceans are adding to existing stresses on coral reefs and 

fish communities that are at the center of these islands’ 

economic and cultural practices. To foster stable and 

sustainable island communities, the Department will work 

to build climate resilience across critical habitats, systems 

and infrastructure and reduce threats from pollution 

sources, invasive species, increased fire risk, and changes 

in ocean conditions throughout U.S. Territories and islands. 

Keystone Initiative Islands: Hawaiian Forest 

Bird Conservation

To foster native biodiversity in island ecosystems, 

the Department is working to prevent imminent 

extinction of Hawaiian Forest Birds through a 

multiagency strategy that employs a multi-pronged 

approach for native Forest Bird conservation and 

avian malaria control, and strengthening of local 

partnerships. Additional work to better incorporate 

biocultural knowledge into conservation of island 

biodiversity is underway. 

Keystone Initiative Grasslands: Bison 

Restoration

As part of a larger keystone initiative to restore and 

protect grasslands, Secretary Haaland signed a 

new Secretary’s Order to enhance co-stewarded, 

healthy, bison herds as well as a commitment of 

over $25 million from President Biden’s Inflation 

Reduction Act to empower Department bureaus and 

other partners to use the best available science and 

Indigenous Knowledge to help restore bison across 

the country, as well as the vast grassland habitats on 

which they depend on. 

GRASSLANDS

We have already lost more than 70% of the nation’s 

grasslands. As a result, grassland migratory bird 

populations in North America have plummeted by 53% since 

1970, and 75% of those species are declining significantly. 

Pollinator and aquatic species face similar declines. Current 

conservation efforts, while extensive, are out-paced by 

grassland conversion and degradation. 
National Frameworks that Support 

Coordinated Restoration and Resilience 

Millions of Americans across the country live within just and gas wells and abandoned mine lands, and nearly 

one mile from an abandoned coal mine or an orphaned oil $10 million for environmental remediation around 

and gas well. These legacy pollution sites are environmental legacy pollution sites and to address pollution 

hazards and jeopardize public health and safety by in riparian zones. These funds are being used to 

contaminating groundwater, emitting noxious gases like address these toxic sites, create good paying jobs 

methane, littering the landscape with rusted and dangerous and revitalize economies, in coordination with 

equipment, creating flooding and sinkhole risks, and the Appalachia Landscape Partnership. While 

harming wildlife. these resources can remediate pollution and 

environmental hazards, additional resources are 

Keystone Initiative: Appalachia required to complete full land and water restoration. 

The Department will coordinate investment of To improve human and environmental health in restoration resources to meet this need in key areas Appalachia, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in this landscape. provides $16 billion for the cleanup of orphaned oil 

RESTORATION AND RESILIENCE GOAL #3

Enhancing communities’ quality of life by improving 

outdoor spaces and addressing legacy pollution 

Two additional keystone initiatives coordinate across all 

Department bureaus to support fundamental needs for all 

seven of the above restoration and resilience goals. 

ADVANCING A NATIONAL EARLY DETECTION 

AND RAPID RESPONSE FRAMEWORK 

Invasive species are a substantial threat to native plants and 

wildlife, human health and economies, cultural heritage, and 

commercial, agricultural and recreational activities. 

Through investments from the Bipartisan Infrastructure 

Law, the Department is advancing numerous components 

of a National Early Detection and Rapid Response (EDRR) 

Framework and working with partners to identify, enhance 

and coordinate capacity, build new tools, and establish 

coordinated processes to proactively find and eradicate 

new invasive species before they establish, spread and 

cause harm. Specifics include identifying high risk invasive 

species and invasion hotspots across the nation to inform 

strategic early detection efforts, developing and enhancing 

molecular tools to aid early detection capabilities, boosting 

capacity for on-the-ground rapid response actions, and 

creating an online clearinghouse to serve as a central hub 

for coordinating EDRR information so that managers can 

share and have access to current information to guide 

strategic program implementation. 

PLAN, DESIGN AND IMPLEMENT THE 

NATIONAL SEED STRATEGY 

Human influences such as invasive species, altered wildfire 

regimes, and natural disasters are negatively affecting our 

native plant communities and the many species that depend 

upon them. Our ability to repair these damaged lands and 

stem the loss of cultural and economic benefits to society 

depends upon appropriate and sufficient seed resources for 

replanting and the associated research, decision tools, and 

public support for ecological restoration. 

Through collaboration and communications, the Department 

is working to build and implement a national strategy to 

ensure native seed availability for ecological restoration. 

This work will assess native seed needs and ensure 

availability, increase “seeds of success” collecting teams, 

promote seed research and provide tools and training 

for land managers to maximize native plant restoration 

success.