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A restoration project at the south end of California's Salton Sea is is being expanded thanks to a $70 million grant from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The expansion was announced at a groundbreaking ceremony for the Species Conservation Habitat (SCH) Project, which aims to protect air quality and support wildlife by reducing exposed lakebed and restoring habitat. The first phase of the project covered 4,110 acres at the southern end of the Salton Sea. The expansion will add 750 acres, bringing the total project area to nearly 5,000 acres.
The Salton Sea has receded in recent years due to drought, climate change, and agricultural water use changes. The increasingly exposed lakebed releases toxic dust particles, contaminating air quality and threatening the local ecosystems. The SCH Project works to restore wetland habitat and create areas that minimize fine particle emissions.
Interior Department signs three co-stewardship agreements with Alaska Tribes
The Department of the Interior signed three new co-stewardship agreements with Alaska Native Tribes and Corporations. Two of the agreements promote efforts to protect salmon in the Yukon, Kuskokwim, and Norton Sound regions through the Department's Gravel to Gravel Keystone Initiative, which incorporates Indigenous knowledge to improve the resiliency of ecosystems, communities, and the Pacific salmon population. The third agreement improves the management of easements providing access to public lands and waters across privately owned Ahtna lands.
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With just over half of the Great Plains grasslands remaining, every cut from the plow has significant consequences for wildlife, carbon storage, and clean water.”
