SOUNDBITE: The Bureau of Land Management has published final revised regulations governing oil and gas activity on the public lands. The set of regulations known as Onshore Oil and Gas Order Number 1 will now include updates required by the 1987 Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act, the 2005 Energy Policy Act, and changes in policy and procedure issued since the Order was last updated in October 1983. BLM spokesperson Heather Feeney says the major changes involve procedures for processing Applications for Permits to Drill or APDs. (text)

SOUNDBITE: The revised Order contains a clear definition of a “complete” APD package that puts into regulation the definition already commonly used in many BLM Field Offices. It also codifies the current BLM practice requiring a joint onsite inspection by the BLM and the operator before an APD is considered complete.   (text)

SOUNDBITE: Regulations and procedures used when operating in split estate situations are also clarified in the Final Rule, which requires operators to make good faith efforts to reach surface access agreements with private surface owners. Where a good faith effort fails and no surface agreement can be reached, the revised Order provides for the posting of a bond to protect against damages to the surface as allowed in the statute that reserved the mineral rights to the Federal government.  (text)

In addition, the Final Rule provides opportunities for private surface owners to participate in onsite inspection meetings. This provision responds to comments gathered from some surface owners during a series of listening sessions on split estate issues, held in four Western cities and Washington D.C. in 2006.  The final rule as published will be effective May 7, 2007. 

STORY: The International Polar Year officially began March 1 with conferences held around the globe attended by scientists from 63 nations. The conference in the United States was held at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington D.C. International Polar Year is an intense scientific campaign to improve human understanding of the critical role of Polar Regions in global biological systems and to engage the public in polar discovery. (text)

SOUNDBITE: 19 At the kick-off conference a panel of polar scientists presented an overview of expeditions that will take place at both the North and South Poles. The panel included government leaders from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Department of the Interior. Deputy Secretary of the Interior Lynn Scarlett remarked that while Polar Regions are remote from human populations, they are not remote in their relevance and that each change affects other biological systems.  (text)

SOUNDBITE: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the USGS will study how the future of Arctic animals and ecosystems are linked to the fate of the Arctic ice pack. A key area of focus will be glaciers according to USGS Director Mark Myers who has spent much of his professional scientific career in the Arctic and Antarctic.  (text)

SOUNDBITE: Myers says that sharing the information with universities and other organizations will be very important to make the International Polar Year a success, much of the data will be made available on the Web. One of the studies will be to determine the amount of petroleum in the Artic. (text)

This is actually the fourth polar year, the first was in 1882. A web cast of the event with a video on the vision for International Polar Year can be accessed from U.S. government’s International Polar Year website at http://www.ipy.gov/DesktopModules/Articles/ArticleDetails.aspx?ItemID=181

STORY: The Healthy Lands Initiative is a $22 million investment that will combine the wildlife science and land-managing expertise of Interior agencies with the knowledge and experience of local communities, companies and conservation groups to rehabilitate and protect working landscapes. (text)

SOUNDBITE: The Bureau of Land Management will receive $15 million while $5 million will go to the U.S. Geological Survey and the remaining $2 million will go to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. BLM Director Jim Hughes says that partnerships are an integral part of the Initiative. The initiative is expected to leverage at least another $10 million in contributions from state, local and tribal governments, philanthropic organizations, advocacy groups and energy industry partners. (text)

SOUNDBITE: Wyoming’s Green River Basin is a priority site for the BLM because its landscape and habitats are undergoing rapid change in response to recent energy resource development. The Green River Basin area alone has 9 listed endangered species. The Initiative will mandate use of new technologies to help reduce impacts on habitat and protect landscapes. (text)

SOUNDBITE: Hughes says that taking aggressive steps now will help avoid imposed restrictions on uses of public lands in the West that would directly affect the entire nation’s energy security and quality of life. (text)

More information on the initiative can be found on the BLM Web site at http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/info/newsroom/2007/february/healthy_lands_intiative.html

STORY: Thousands of innocent Japanese Americans were forced into isolated internment camps following the 1941 attack on Pearl. The Manzanar War Relocation Center, a National Park Service National Historic site, provided a compelling classroom experience for nearly 20 million viewers to experience an Electronic Field Trip. (text)

SOUNDBITE: Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne joined the virtual hike with the fifth grade class from Murch Elementary School in Washington D.C. for the live, interactive broadcast. Children watched a video about life in the isolated camps and learned about the Issei and Nisei generations, older Japanese born citizens and American born Japanese. Fifth grader Sage said the technology was a “cool” way to learn. (text)

SOUNDBITE: Park Rangers provided interpretation during the live question/answer session along with surviving detainees from the dessert. Nearly 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry living in the U.S. were forced into internment camps. Japanese American World War II veteran, Joseph Ichiuji was already serving in the U.S. Army when he was told to go to a camp in Arizona. (text)

SOUNDBITE: This is the 5th National Park Electronic Field Trip created through a partnership between Ball State University and the National Park Foundation with assistance from the National Park Service and the Best Buy Children’s Foundation. The Manzanar program called “Desert Diamonds” was made possible by funding and support from The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y. Following the program, Secretary Kempthorne administered the Junior Ranger pledge to the Murch students.

STORY: Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced the President’s $10.7 billion dollar FY 2008 budget for the Department of the Interior in Washington DC Monday. It proposes funding for initiatives that will promote healthy lands, safe Indian communities and improved Indian education, full funding for the 2008 pay raise and other fixed costs. (text)

SOUNDBITE: The budget also includes record funding for the National Park Service. The 2008 budget of $2.4 billion for NPS includes $2.0 billion for park operations, the largest increase ever as part of the President’s National Parks Centennial Initiative. The National Parks Centennial Challenge will leverage public-private investment to generate up to $3 billion over 10 years to help parks prepare for their 100th anniversary in 2016. (text)

SOUNDBITE: The President’s Healthy Lands Initiative would provide $22 million to expand partnerships to restore and protect more than 400,000 acres of significant wildlife habitat that coexists with energy resources and to protect species, such as the sage grouse, to prevent future listing under the Endangered Species Act. (text)

SOUNDBITE: Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey will work together in cooperation with federal leaseholders, private landowners, state, local and tribal partners and industry. In-kind and monetary contributions from partners would add at least another $10 million to the effort. The Sagebrush habitat of Wyoming’s Green River Basin is one such area that would benefit. (text)

SOUNDBITE: To advance American Indian education and tribal public safety, the President has proposed a $15.0 million investment to improve student performance in Indian schools and a $16.0 million increase to fund a Safe Indian Communities Initiative. The latter initiative will strengthen law enforcement capabilities on tribal lands. Increased funding will be used to hire, train and equip law enforcement officers to combat the production and distribution of methamphetamine. Secretary Kempthorne, who has seen first-hand what meth can do in his home state of Idaho, says it is a moral obligation to fight what Tribal Elders have called “the second small pox epidemic.”(text)

SOUNDBITE: To raise the level of student performance in Bureau of Indian Education schools, the President’s budget calls for an additional $15 million investment to improve Indian student academic achievement, a key goal of the No Child Left Behind Act. Included in the request is an increase of $3.6 million for Education Program Management will establish positions for specialists dedicated to the administration and management of data, contracts and school finances. And an increase of $1.85 million will fund the Native American Student Information System, an information management tool that will support the BIE’s efforts in improving student and school performance.(text)

Permanent funding that becomes available as a result of existing legislation without further action by Congress will provide an additional $5.1 billion, for a total FY2008 Interior budget of $15.8 billion. The Department projects revenue collections of $15.6 billion in 2008, a record level that offsets Interior’s current budget authority by more than 1.5 to 1.

More detailed information is in the FY2008 Interior Budget in Brief which is available online at: http://www.doi.gov/budget/2008/08Hilites/toc.html.

SOUNDBITE: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is removing the western Great Lakes population of gray wolves from the federal list of threatened and endangered species and proposing to remove the northern Rocky Mountain population of gray wolves from the list. The Western Great Lakes late winter gray wolf population now numbers approximately 4,000 exceeding the numerical criteria established in the species’ recovery plan.  FWS Director Dale Hall says the service will monitor, for the next five years, the Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin Departments of Natural Resources and their future wolf management actions. (text)

SOUNDBITE: The minimum recovery goal for wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains was attained in 2002 and has been exceeded every year since.   Director Hall says the northern Rocky Mountain Distinct Population Segment includes all of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, the eastern one-third of Washington and Oregon, and a small part of north-central Utah. (text)

SOUNDBITE: While the Service has approved wolf management plans in Montana and Idaho, it has determined that Wyoming’s state law and wolf management plan are not sufficient to conserve Wyoming’s portion of a recovered northern Rocky Mountain wolf population.   Interior Deputy Secretary Lynn Scarlett says that if Wyoming’s plan is not approved before the Service decides a final action on the proposal, then the ESA protection would still cover that portion of the wolves range excluding the national parks, which have adequate regulatory mechanisms to conserve wolves. (text)

SOUNDBITE: The proposal process is set up to invite and encourage public comment.  Director Hall hopes the process can be complete by the end of 2007. (text)

For more information on the Northern Rocky Mountain gray wolves, visit www.fws.gov/mountain-prairie/species/mammals/wolf/

SOUNDBITE: In testimony before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Interior Assistant Secretary Steve Allred asked for additional authority to help him renegotiate deep water oil and natural gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico signed in 1998 and 1999. The leases omitted a clause that would have required the producers to pay the U.S. Government royalties when oil prices exceeded $36 a barrel. Allred told the panel that he believes the companies that have not yet agreed to renegotiate their leases could be persuaded if he was authorized to offer incentives that do not impact the U.S. Treasury. (text)

SOUNDBITE: Allred, who oversees land and minerals management agencies at Interior, said he is aggressively negotiating with companies to win agreements to apply price thresholds to the deep water leases issued in 1998-1999. Six companies have already volunteered to do so. (text)

SOUNDBITE: Allred said Congress and the Administration need to work together to solve this problem in order to avoid any long term litigation. He said court action could have unintended consequences such as significantly reducing future production and revenue. (text)

One third of all energy produced in the United States comes from resources managed by the Interior Department, including those in the Federal Outer Continental Shelf. Within the next five years, the offshore areas will provide more than 40 percent of U.S. oil production and 20 percent of U.S. natural gas production, primarily due to deep water discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico.

President Bush has directed Interior to increase the royalty rate for new deep water leases in the gulf from 12.5 percent to 16.7 percent. That will increase revenue from royalty payments by $4.5 billion over 20 years.

STORY: Federal protection and few natural predators have resulted in thriving wild horse and burro populations across Western rangelands. Hi-tech counting methods with help from the USGS last year show there were 31,000 free roaming wild horses on ranges covering more than 88 million acres of public land. (text)

SOUNDBITE: The Bureau of Land Management rounds up nearly 10,000 wild horses per year aiming for what they determine to be the Appropriate Management Level of 27,500 for the entire range. Don Glenn, the Chief of the Wild Horse and Burro Program says that goal has never been reached but is getting closer. (text)

SOUNDBITE: Of the horses that are removed from the range, the BLM hopes to adopt out more than 5,000 horses this year from both permanent and temporary adoption centers throughout the country. Sally Spencer, who does marketing for the Wild Horse and Burro Program, says the wild Mustangs have proven themselves at everything they do from being working horses to show horses and that the adoption process is easy. (text)

SOUNDBITE: Horses that are not adopted after three tries are offered up for sale to citizens and organizations that promise to protect and care for the animals. The animals otherwise live out their lives in taxpayer funded holding facilities. Thanks to BLM partners, financial incentives have been offered to try and find homes for each animal. (text)

SOUNDBITE: Another creative outreach effort is the Extreme Mustang Makeover a challenge event sponsored by the Mustang Heritage Foundation. Individual trainers will compete by training a wild horse for three months and then showcase their abilities at a September gathering in Fort Worth, Tex. The trained Mustangs will be judged on conditioning, groundwork and a “Horse Course” which represents maneuvers and obstacles found in trail and recreational riding situations. The winner will take home $25,000 and the newly gentled Mustangs will immediately be put up for adoption. Deadline for entry is April 15th. (text)

SOUNDBITE: While wild horses are found in nine Western states, the burro is primarily found in Arizona. Adoption officials say they are in great demand and that horse adoptions actually increase when they’re present. (text)

For more information about the Wild Horse and Burro program go to www.wildhorseandburro.blm.gov  

SOUNDBITE: The Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service is taking public comments on a draft programmatic environmental impact statement that will focus on potential alternative energy development that may be initiated in the next five to seven years as well as potential alternate uses of offshore facilities in the same time frame. MMS Director Johnnie Burton says feedback from the public has helped shape the draft statement. (text)

SOUNDBITE: The programmatic EIS assesses generic impacts from development, operations and decommissioning of alternative energy or alternate use facilities and identifies key issues and mitigation measures that should be considered in subsequent site-specific reviews. (text)

SOUNDBITE: The draft PEIS is being prepared independent of ongoing projects to analyze potential environmental effects associated with the Cape Wind Energy proposal off the coast of Massachusetts and the Long Island Offshore Wind Park project proposal. But if new issues are identified during the Programmatic EIS process that are not already covered in the project-specific EISs, they will be incorporated into those project-specific EISs. (text)

SOUNDBITE: MMS received authority for the OCS Alternative Energy and Alternate Use Program from the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Under this authority, MMS will regulate alternative energy projects and one day may collect royalties from them. Burton says states will benefit from both “green power” and the royalties. (text)

SOUNDBITE: Examples of alternative energy project activities the MMS would regulate include wind energy, wave energy, ocean current energy, solar energy, and hydrogen production. Alternate use involves existing but decommissioned facilities that may experience a second life as a habitat for offshore aquaculture, research, or even as support for offshore operations and facilities. (text)

MMS expects to file a Final EIS in August 2007 and publish a Record of Decision in September 2007. The public can obtain a copy of the draft programmatic EIS and even submit a comment at: ocsenergy.anl.gov. MMS is also accepting written comments on the draft programmatic EIS for the next 60 days by mail to: MMS OCS Alternative Energy and Alternate Use Programmatic EIS, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 S. Cass Avenue, Argonne, IL 60439. Comments must be received by May 21, 2007.  

SOUNDBITE: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is removing the Yellowstone population of grizzly bears from its status as "threatened" on the U.S. list of threatened and endangered species. The Service first proposed to delist grizzly bears in the Yellowstone ecosystem in November 2005. More than 193,500 public comments were received and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director H. Dale Hall says that the proper protections are now in place. (text)

SOUNDBITE: Yellowstone grizzlies will now be managed under a comprehensive conservation strategy developed by state and federal scientists and managers that includes intensive monitoring of Yellowstone bears, their food, and their habitat. (text)

SOUNDBITE: After nearly disappearing three decades ago, grizzly bears are thriving in the Yellowstone ecosystem. The grizzly's remarkable comeback is the result of years of intensive cooperative recovery efforts between federal and state agencies, conservation groups, and individuals. (text)

Four other grizzly populations in the lower 48 states have not yet recovered and will continue to be protected as threatened species under the Act. Notification of the delisting of the Yellowstone population of grizzly bears will be published in the Federal Register in the near future. For more information about the announcement, go to http://mountain-prairie.fws.gov/species/mammals/grizzly/yellowstone.htm  

SOUNDBITE: Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne told representatives of the off shore energy industry about the Department’s role in regulating the industry while enhancing America’s energy security. President Bush has signed legislation that will allow the Minerals Management Service to consider in its five year plan for 2007 to 2012, an additional 8.3 million acres in the eastern and central Gulf of Mexico and the North Aleutian Basin that have been off limits to energy development. (text)

SOUNDBITE: The Minerals Management Service is also developing a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for alternative sources of energy. Secretary Kempthorne said gas hydrates may one day lessen our dependence on foreign oil. (text)

SOUNDBITE: The Minerals Management Service, through royalties collections, collects more non-tax revenue than any federal agency. Kempthorne told the audience he’s appointed a bipartisan committee to review mineral revenue collection. (text)

SOUNDBITE: Many challenges face the offshore energy development industry including climate change. In December 2006, Secretary Kempthorne proposed listing the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. While scientific evidence shows the potential decline of the species closely linked to rising temperatures in the Arctic, the Fish and Wildlife Service specifically said oil and gas activities are not a threat to the species. (text)

The National Ocean Industries Association consist of producers of crude oil and natural gas, contractors, marine engineers, service and supply companies and others with an interest in producing energy from the nation's outer continental shelf in an environmentally responsible manner.  

SOUNDBITE: The Bureau of Land Management is making early predictions for an active fire season due to below normal snowpack out west and weather patterns that caused a wet fall and winter and then an early spring.  BLM Acting Director Jim Hughes says the El Nino pattern has now become neutral, which means all the growth caused by the moisture is going to begin to dry very quickly. (text)

SOUNDBITE: Last year was a record breaking fire season with 9.9 million acres burned.  That fire season was off to an early start in Florida where Hughes says they’re preparing for above normal fire potential this spring. (text)

SOUNDBITE: Interior Alaska is reported to be abnormally dry and in the western states where lightning strikes are a prime cause of fires, fuel loads such as Cheat grass and other fine brush stand ready to burn. (text)

SOUNDBITE: The acting BLM director says that federal agencies will have sufficient resources for the 2007 season and will continue to work closely with states and local fire fighters to extend capabilities. Studies show that 98 percent of fires are contained on initial attack by local fire fighters. (text)

SOUNDBITE: The priorities of fire fighters are to protect the public and themselves while saving property and natural resources.  That job gets more difficult each year as more people choose to live in what’s called the Wildland Urban Interface or WUI.  Homes in the WUI need to be constructed and landscaped with fire resistance in mind.. (text)

Daily reports on fire activity are available from the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho at www.nifc.gov. 

SOUNDBITE: The Healthy Lands Initiative is part of the President’s fiscal year 2008 budget proposal to address a variety of pressures on public lands.  Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced Tuesday that the department doesn’t want to wait until 2008 and that the Bureau of Land Management is allocating $3 million for immediate on-the-ground restoration work to begin immediately. (text)

SOUNDBITE: Demand for public land uses and resources is at an all-time high.  The Healthy Lands Initiative takes an aggressive, landscape-level approach to land management, one that will facilitate needed energy development while protecting a myriad of resources on the public lands, including world-class wildlife habitat.  (text)

SOUNDBITE: The $3 million in immediate funding is in addition to the $22 million in Healthy Lands Initiative funding the President requested in his FY08 budget.  The FY07 projects are expected to leverage an additional $3 million of in-kind and monetary contributions from state and private stewards of the land to help restore nearly 74,000 acres of BLM-managed land. (text)

SOUNDBITE: The projects are to completed by September 30 of this year and cover a range of efforts to remove invasive species, restore riparian areas and restore habitat for mule deer and sage grouse. (text)

More information on the goals and strategies of the Healthy Lands Initiative can be found online at http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/info/newsroom/2007/february/healthy_lands_intiative.html

SOUNDBITE: Six coastal states now know how much money they’ll be eligible to receive for shoreline projects under the Coastal Impact Assistance Program.  Minerals Management Service Deputy Director Walter Cruickshank says the information announced this week will help energy producing states and their coastal political subdivisions put final touches on their grant requests for the money. (text)

SOUNDBITE: The Energy Policy Act of 2005 established the CIAP and authorizes the Secretary of the Interior, through MMS, to distribute $250 million annually to Alabama, Alaska, California, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas in fiscal years 2007 through 2010.  The funds are allocated to each state based on the State’s Qualified Outer Continental Shelf Revenue (QOCSR) and is a percentage of the total revenue of all the eligible states.  (text)

SOUNDBITE: The funding will be used in a variety of ways to conserve, protect, and restore coastal areas and wetlands.  It can also be used for planning assistance and the administrative costs of complying with CIAP legislation and for mitigation of any OCS activities through funding of onshore infrastructure projects and public service needs. (text)

SOUNDBITE: Once state CIAP plans are approved by MMS, CIAP recipients may submit grant applications for projects included in the plan. MMS will begin accepting grant applications in mid-October 2007. (text)

More information on the CIAP program is available at: http://www.mms.gov/offshore/CIAPmain.htm, including a more specific breakdown of allocations by all six States and 67 CPSs

SOUNDBITE: Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne announced Minerals Management Service’s proposed five year program for oil and gas lease sales on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf in a news conference Monday at the Department of the Interior in Washington D.C. The federal initiative proposes more than 8 million acres of new lease areas in the Gulf of Mexico, sales in 8 areas of the coast of Alaska and for the first time there is a proposed lease sale in the Mid-Atlantic of the coastline of Virginia. Secretary Kempthorne says the program overall would provide energy security for America. (text)

SOUNDBITE: The Five Year Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program will guide domestic energy leasing on the OCS from 2007 to 2012 and was developed with input from Congress, state, local and tribal officials, industry and environmental organizations. The program also received comment from more than a hundred thousand interested citizens.  (text)

SOUNDBITE: The Mid-Atlantic Planning Area off the coast of the state of Virginia was included at the request of its governor and is covered by a presidential withdrawal and a congressional moratorium. If those were lifted no lease sale or exploration would proceed without additional site-specific analysis of its environmental effects under the National Environmental Policy Act. MMS Director Johnnie Burton says at this time only surveys can be taken. (text)

SOUNDBITE: Revenues from OCS energy production are shared with coastal states adjacent to OCS energy production. The proposal will provide hundreds of millions of dollars of new revenue for states to pay for infrastructure, environmental restoration and other critical needs. Royalty rates for new leases in the Gulf of Mexico were recently increased. (text)

A Notice of Availability for the 5-Year plan and its Final Environmental Impact Statement will appear in the Federal Register on May 2, 2007. As required by the OCS Lands Act, the program was submitted to the President and Congress today and, after 60 days, the Secretary may approve it to take effect on July 1, 2007. The complete proposed plan is online at http://www.mms.gov/5-year/

STORY :  Ranchers and Farmers in the United States and its territories are key partners in conserving habitat for birds and other wildlife by modifying cattle and agriculture operations.  Dr. Luis Ramos-Santiago is one such landowner.  His ranch, Hacienda Central Pellejas, in the mountains of central Puerto Rico is an example of how agriculture and bird conservation can work together to the benefit of all. (text)

SOUNDBITE:  Coffee on the ranch had been grown in a monoculture, exposed to sun with no other native plants nearby.  But with since 2001 it has become a sustainable ecosystem where birds, native plants and animals thrive.  (text)

SOUNDBITE:  Shade-grown coffee provides habitat for 12 endangered or threatened species.  Dr. Ramos-Santiago believes one day the endangered Puerto Rican Parrot will find a home on the ranch which is near the site where a breeding pair was released in November 2006. (text)

SOUNDBITE:  The cooperative partnership includes the ranch, Fish and Wildlife Service and the USDA.  In 2005, Hacienda Central Pellejas received a more than $115,000 Private Stewardship Grant from the Department of the Interior to continue restoration of habitat. (text)

The project site is part of a landscape corridor connecting several Commonwealth Natural Reserves in the central mountains of Puerto Rico that will contribute to the recovery of several endangered species such as the Puerto Rican boa and the Puerto Rican sharp-shinned Hawk.

SOUNDBITE :  Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne led a wreath-laying ceremony Monday at the headquarters of the U.S. Department of the Interior to honor 96 Department of the Interior law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty since the department’s establishment in 1849. The ceremony of remembrance is held each year in Washington, D.C. during National Police Week.(text)

SOUNDBITE:  Bureau agency chiefs each laid wreaths while an honor guard composed of U.S Park Police and employees of other bureaus also participated. Present at the ceremony were family members of Kris Eggle, an NPS ranger shot and killed in the line of duty at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, on August 9, 2002 while pursuing members of a drug cartel hit squad, he was 28 years old. Kempthorne said he is thankful that no officers died in the line of duty in 2006.   (text)

The Department of the Interior has 4,000 law enforcement officers, the third largest law enforcement contingent in the federal government. Many officers face danger in remote locations under adverse conditions.

STORY :  The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service co-funded a study that shows, based on the marine life found on deep sea shipwrecks from World War II, deep water oil and gas structures could increase marine life habitat. (text)

SOUNDBITE:  The recipients of the 2006 Department of the Interior’s Cooperative Conservation Award and more recently the National Oceanographic Partnership Program’s Excellence in Partnering Award, investigated seven shipwrecks, including a German U-Boat submarine and some of its targets.  Herb Leedy, an MMS Marine Biologist, says platforms in shallower depths are “islands of life” and the study shows that deep water platforms may also support marine life.  (text)

SOUNDBITE :  The ships lie in water ranging from 400 to 6,500 feet deep and were all sunk within a one year period of each another.  In observing the structural state of the wrecks, the marine scientists also discovered formations called rusticles, by-product from metal eating bacteria. (text)

SOUNDBITE:  The marine archaeology part of the study positively confirmed the identity of three wrecks, and found a relationship among water depth, ship size, and the size of the debris field.  MMS archaeologist Jack Irion says the study cleared up a debate about who sunk the German U-Boat in the Gulf of Mexico.  For years it was thought to be the Coast Guard, but new details on the location of UN-66 prove that it was the Navy that sent the submarine to the sea floor.   (text)

The report,Archaeological and Biological Analysis of World War II Shipwrecks in the Gulf of Mexico:  Artificial Reef Effect in Deep Water (MMS 2007-015), is available from the MMS Gulf of Mexico OCS Region, 1-800-200-GULF on compact disc only.

STORY :  In preparation for Hurricane Season 2007, which begins June 1, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) announced Wednesday operational and administrative improvements that have been implemented to prepare oil and gas infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico for the possibility of hurricanes this season. (text)

SOUNDBITE:  The operational enhancements clarify special engineering practices and reporting procedures used by offshore operators on all structure types from Mobile Offshore Drilling Units and Jack-up rigs to existing and new fixed platforms. Thanks to a mild ’06 Hurricane Season, Chris Oynes, Associate Director for Offshore Minerals Management says these enhancements are in addition to improvements just now being completed from last year’s recommendations.  (text)

SOUNDBITE :  The 2007 Hurricane Season is expected to be above normal with as many as ten hurricanes and three to five of those expected to be above category 3. The 2006 season saw only five hurricanes total with three at category 3 strength that stayed offshore in the Atlantic.(text)

SOUNDBITE:  In 2005 two major hurricanes, Katrina and Rita, sliced through the heart of the offshore oil and gas activity in the Gulf of Mexico hammering about 75 percent of the offshore facilities with hurricane force winds. In spite of this pounding there were no significant oil spills from wells thanks to down-hole safety valves that automatically shut-in oil.   (text)

Also in preparation for Hurricane Season 2007, MMS will activate its hurricane information Web site with broad overview hurricane-related information. The Web site will also offer updated evacuation and production statistics in the event of a hurricane or tropical storm as well as historical information on hurricanes and important links to other involved federal agencies.

STORY :  Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and National Park Service Director Mary Bomar unveiled “The Future of America’s National Parks,” a report that puts forth goals, national strategies and projects that will be completed by the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service. The content of the report was guided in part by input from listening sessions held throughout the country. (text)

SOUNDBITE:  The report was delivered to President Bush prior to the rooftop press conference at the Interior Department. The President, last August, directed the Interior Secretary to establish goals for the future of national parks as part of the Centennial Initiative. One of the important themes was education. Secretary Kempthorne says children need to be reintroduced to the outdoors and that parks are a great education resource.  (text)

SOUNDBITE :  The report sets high performance goals in the areas of stewardship, environmental leadership, recreational experience and professional excellence. By 2016 the park service will have rehabilitated several historic sites, improved habitat and even become a better place to work with management improvements.(text)

SOUNDBITE :  Some of the actions in the report include an inventory of all wildlife in parks and strategic acquisitions to protect landscapes. The report will go out to the entire park system with each unit presenting their Centennial strategy and projects by August 2007. (text)

As proposed in the President’s Fiscal Year 2008 budget, the Centennial Initiative is a potential $3 billion infusion for the national park system. The President has already proposed $1 billion over 10 years, above existing budgets, be spent on park operations. He also called for Americans to donate $1 billion over 10 years to the National Park Service to be matched by up to $1 billion from a special centennial account.

On Friday Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced 40 newly designated National Recreation Trails to be added to a system of national trails that connect Americans with the great outdoors including the country’s 1,000th National Recreation Trail named to honor one of the heroes who died aboard Flight 93 on September 11, 2001. The Rich Guadagno Memorial Trail in Oregon is located in the Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge where Guadagno once worked.

SOUNDBITE :  The first Saturday in June each year is National Trails Day and the beginning of Great Outdoors Month. Cherri Esperson, Interior’s National Trails Coordinator says the system of trails is growing thanks to community involvement and partnerships. She says trails have the most value close to home. (text)

SOUNDBITE:  National Recreation Trails showcase the diversity of the American landscape. Some follow paths where railroad tracks once ran, others challenge hikers and bikers and some trails are made of water such as the 1,500-mile long Florida Circumnavigational Saltwater Paddling Trail.  (text)

SOUNDBITE :  National Recreation Trails are components of the National Trails System. Each of the trails inducted into the system will receive a certificate of designation and trail markers. They join a network that contains more than 11,000 miles of trails. (text)

SOUNDBITE :  More than 300 elementary school students celebrated the start of National Fishing and Boating Week by fishing for bass and bluegill in the pond at Constitution Gardens on the National Mall in Washington DC. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dale Hall says the experience will hopefully instill the value of conservation in the participants. (text)

SOUNDBITE:  The national celebration of fishing and boating is held annually during the first full week in June and is coordinated by the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation (RBFF) – a nonprofit organization seeking to increase participation in recreational angling and boating. The kickoff is the Take Me Fishing event to get kids outdoors.   (text)

SOUNDBITE :  Monday’s event was a collaborative effort involving several non-profit organizations along with federal and local representatives, each with a stake in fostering connections between children and nature. Groups supporting the effort and supplying the fishing gear included the American Sportfishing Association, Trout Unlimited, the District of Columbia Fisheries and Wildlife Division, the Future Fisherman Foundation, the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. (text)

Many states do not require a fishing license during the week and hold fishing clinics, casting contests, derbies, fish hatchery open houses and other family-oriented activities. Hundreds of communities also sponsor their own fishing and boating-related events. For information on where to go for boating and fishing, visit RBFF’s Take Me Fishing website: http://www.takemefishing.org/

SOUNDBITE: The Department of the Interior has proposed legislation to congress that will advance the Department’s vision of cooperative partnerships.   Deputy Secretary of the Interior Lynn Scarlett says that vision is shared with the public based on what officials from the Interior and other agencies heard during last year’s nationwide series of listening sessions. (text)

SOUNDBITE:  The legislation, called the “Cooperative Conservation Enhancement Act,” removes barriers to fostering additional cooperation among federal agencies, local and state governments, and the private sector. Scarlett says it will make everybody a partner and enhance the incentives for landowners and others to conserve lands, water and wildlife and to coordinate conservation activities across jurisdictions.   (text)

SOUNDBITE :  The hallmark legislation would codify successful cooperative conservation methods, and formally authorize conservation grant programs to sustain shared stewardship efforts.  As a result, Scarlett says conservation efforts will move beyond isolated projects that have no connection or coordination. (text)

SOUNDBITE :  Where previous legislation was vague or unclear this act would allow for the Department to promote the existence of friends groups, and gives the Department greater opportunities to enter into partnerships with private individuals, companies, organizations and government entities in order to achieve conservation goals on a landscape scale. (text)

The legislation, submitted to Congress for its consideration, will address much of the bureaucratic red tape that has kept federal agencies from working closely with one another and even private citizens from trying to undertake conservation efforts on their own land.

SOUNDBITE :  More than 300 elementary school students celebrated the start of National Fishing and Boating Week by fishing for bass and bluegill in the pond at Constitution Gardens on the National Mall in Washington DC. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dale Hall says the experience will hopefully instill the value of conservation in the participants. (text)

SOUNDBITE:  The national celebration of fishing and boating is held annually during the first full week in June and is coordinated by the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation (RBFF) – a nonprofit organization seeking to increase participation in recreational angling and boating. The kickoff is the Take Me Fishing event to get kids outdoors.   (text)

SOUNDBITE :  Monday’s event was a collaborative effort involving several non-profit organizations along with federal and local representatives, each with a stake in fostering connections between children and nature. Groups supporting the effort and supplying the fishing gear included the American Sportfishing Association, Trout Unlimited, the District of Columbia Fisheries and Wildlife Division, the Future Fisherman Foundation, the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. (text)

Many states do not require a fishing license during the week and hold fishing clinics, casting contests, derbies, fish hatchery open houses and other family-oriented activities. Hundreds of communities also sponsor their own fishing and boating-related events. For information on where to go for boating and fishing, visit RBFF’s Take Me Fishing website: http://www.takemefishing.org/

STORY :  At Thursday’s ceremony to remove the bald eagle from the list of endangered species an opening blessing was given by a man who is both a federal employee and a Potawatomi Indian. One of Scott Aikin’s jobs as a resource officer at the Bureau of Indian Affairs is to help the Fish and Wildlife Service administer the National Eagle Repository.(text)

SOUNDBITE:  Aikin’s staff at the BIA confirms tribal enrollment of individuals who apply to the Fish and Wildlife service for parts or whole birds. The National Eagle Repository is a collection point for dead eagles that have died as a result of electrocution, vehicle collisions, unlawful shooting and trapping, or from natural causes. Aikin has been through the process himself, acquiring an eagle wing for his pow wow dance regalia. He says feathers have many special uses including teaching responsibility to children.   (text)

SOUNDBITE:  Aikin says it can take more than three years to receive an eagle or specific parts from the repository. He previously was a tribal liaison at the Fish and Wildlife Service where he served on the National Eagle Task Force to work improve and streamline the process for eagle part distribution to tribally enrolled members and says eagles have always been a part of his career.(text)

Find out more about the National Eagle Repository at http://www.fws.gov/mountain-prairie/law/eagle/

SOUNDBITE: At a ceremony Thursday on the steps of the Jefferson memorial in Washington D.C., Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne announced the removal of the bald eagle from the list of threatened and endangered species. After nearly disappearing from most of the United States decades ago, the bald eagle is now flourishing across the nation and no longer needs the protection of the Endangered Species Act. (text)

SOUNDBITE:  The bald eagle first gained federal protection in 1940, under what later became the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. The eagle was later given additional protection under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The eagle population fell into steep decline 20 years later due primarily to widespread use of the pesticide DDT decimating the eagle population across the nation. The eagle was one of the original species protected by the ESA when it was enacted in 1973. Kempthorne emphasized the ongoing commitment of the Interior Department and the entire federal government to the eagle’s continued success.   (text)

SOUNDBITE :  The effort to save the bald eagle required a support network of strong partnerships among government at all levels, tribes, conservation organizations, the business community and individual citizens. The eagle is our national symbol and is also used with pride on everything from sports teams to space ships. (text)

More information about the bald eagle and the post-delisting monitoring plan is available on the Service’s bald eagle website at http://www.fws.gov/migratorybirds/baldeagle.htm.

SOUNDBITE:  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has issued a 90-day finding to consider the status of 10 species’ of penguin and whether to propose them for inclusion on the Federal List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants.  Dr. Peter Thomas, part of the service’s international affairs division, says a special provision of the Endangered Species Act covers foreign listed species. (text)

SOUNDBITE: Listing these penguin species would provide limited and indirect protection, since no penguins are native to the United States but a listing would focus international attention on the species’ conservation needs.    (text)

SOUNDBITE :  The Service’s initial finding was made in response to a petition that asked that 12 penguin species be listed under the Endangered Species Act.  It marks the beginning of at least a two year process that may lead to one of three answers; list, not list, or say listing is warranted but precluded by species with higher priority. (text)

SOUNDBITE :  The penguin species inhabit areas of Antarctica, Argentina, Australian Territory Islands, Chile, French Territory Islands, Namibia, New Zealand, Peru, South Africa and United Kingdom Territory Islands.  Dr. Thomas says climate change is just one of many threats to the species. (text)

A link to the Federal Register notice of the 90-day finding may be found at www.fws.gov/international/

SOUNDBITE:  The Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne planted a blight-resistant American chestnut tree in the nation’s capital Friday, pledging to work with state and local governments and private restoration groups to help return this fabled natural icon to American landscapes. The planting marked the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act which Secretary Kempthorne called one of the most successful environmental programs in American history. (text)

SOUNDBITE: American chestnut trees were once dominant in eastern forest accounting for a quarter of the trees from Maine to Florida and west into the Ohio Valley. However, the species was nearly exterminated by blight in one of the greatest ecological disasters in North American history. By 1950, the pathogen had killed nearly 3.5 billion of the trees.    (text)

SOUNDBITE :  It has taken nearly 25 years of breeding to come up with blight resistant seeds and seedlings. The only way to find out if a backcross breed has been successful is to inject a 5 to 8 year old tree with the blight. Angel says bringing the trees to Appalachia will be a homecoming for the American/Chinese hybrid chestnut tree. (text)

SOUNDBITE :  The SMCRA has regulated the responsible mining of 29.5 billion tons of coal since it was signed in 1977 and exemplifies how the federal government can work with states and tribes to restore and conserve landscapes. Cooperation from the coal mining industry has been a success also. The OSM recommends a forestry reclamation approach to industry operators which Angel says achieves positive results for both the land and the operator.

To date, the partnerships of the ARRI and the American Chestnut Foundation have planted more than 3,000 pure and hybrid American chestnut trees on surface mines in all seven Appalachian coal states. OSM also provided funding in 2006 and 2007 to reforestation researchers at the University of Kentucky, Virginia Tech, and Ohio University to find better ways to plant American chestnuts on reclaimed mine lands. (text)

SOUNDBITE: Building trails, saving sea turtles and becoming “greener”.  Those are examples of more than 200 centennial proposals Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne unveiled Thursday.  The National Park Centennial Initiative, first announced last August, calls for $1 billion over 10 years to strengthen basic park operations and is part of President Bush’s 2008 proposed budget, which included the largest budget ever proposed for park operations and programs benefiting parks. (text)

SOUNDBITE: A key component of the initiative is the Centennial Challenge, a public-private funding vehicle of up to $2 billion for new projects and programs with the goal of a $100 million public-private match each year for 10 years.   (text)

SOUNDBITE :  Congress is still at work on the legislation to authorize private-public funding for the centennial proposals but $301 million in pledges are already waiting in support of the legislation. (text)

SOUNDBITE : Secretary Kempthorne said the proposals the National Park Service has certified as eligible for federal matching money under the National Park Centennial Initiative and are ready to go in 2008.  The list includes proposals at 116 parks in 40 states and the District of Columbia but touches parks nationwide because one of the proposals is an inventory of every living thing in the national park system. (text)

SOUNDBITE: The second lease sale of the new Five Year Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program will take place in New Orleans on Wednesday. The sale covers about 28.7 million acres in federal areas offshore Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama in the newly configured Central Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf Planning Area. Lars Herbst is the Minerals Management Service’s Gulf of Mexico Regional Director. He says the sale will include some tracts that haven’t been offered since 1988.

SOUNDBITE: There has been a record number of bids for the sale, the highest since 1997, with many tracts receiving multiple bids. Herbst says the bidding shows a firm commitment from the oil and gas industry to the future of energy development in the Gulf of Mexico.  

SOUNDBITE:  The total number of tracts offered for sale is 5,359 and when developed could, by some estimates, result in the production of 776 million to 1.3 billion barrels of oil and 3.2 to 5.2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

SOUNDBITE: A Federal sale of offshore oil and natural gas leases in the Central Gulf of Mexico attracted the second highest total of high bids in U.S. offshore leasing history. The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service, which conducted Oil and Gas Lease Sale 205, received a total of 1,428 bids on 723 tracts with one tract going for $90,488,445. MMS Regional Director for the Gulf of Mexico, Lars Herbst said the historic sale emphasizes the Gulf’s strategic value for America’s energy security and the significant economic benefits of environmentally safe oil and gas production. (text)

SOUNDBITE: There were 84 companies participating in the sale. The deepest tract to receive a bid is in 3,398 meters or just over 11,148 feet of water. Herbst says a combination of factors including newly available tracts and a trend toward deep water production is the reason for the competitive sale. (text)

SOUNDBITE:  Each high bid on a block will now go through a thorough evaluation process to ensure that the public receives fair market value before a lease is awarded. Developing these oil and gas rights in the Gulf assures that it will continue to provide the nation with 25 percent of domestically produced oil and 15 percent of domestically produced natural gas. (text)

SOUNDBITE:  More production also means more jobs which generate hundreds of millions of dollars annually to help Gulf States meet the educational, environmental and infrastructure needs of their communities. (text)

The sale offered 5,359 tracts, comprising about 28.7 million acres in federal areas offshore Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.  Approximately 40 percent of the tracts receiving bids in this sale are in ultra-deep water.