The America the Beautiful Challenge aims to conserve lands and waters in the near future. In 2021, the Biden administration set the nation’s first-ever goal to conserve at least 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030. The 61 new grants support landscape-scale conservation projects in 42 states, 19 Tribal Nations and three U.S. territories, according to a news release by the U.S. Department of the Interior. The funds specify “projects implemented by Indigenous communities and organizations.”
A more cooperative way of how the land and its resources are managed is something that Indigenous people have long been fighting for. This also includes looking at the land and its resources through an Indigenous lens, said Brian Melendez, CEO of the Nevada-based nonprofit Tribal Minds.
“We have to be more conscious and aware of the way we take care of our water source, how we take care of our air that we’re breathing,” Melendez said. “How do we take care of the waste that is being created from the exploitation of the land. Those resources will go far beyond multi-generations if we can learn to take care of it and share the space and share the responsibility of caring for those things for future generations.”
Tribal communities in Idaho, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming and Nevada will all receive funds for projects ranging from cleaning up rivers to protecting wildlife.
These are the projects being funded in our region:
- Idaho: $1.9 million will go toward the restoration of 22 acres near an abandoned hydraulic mine site in Leggett Creek.
- New Mexico: $2.1 million to establish native riparian vegetation and restore and protect areas along the Pueblo of Jemez lands, and $1.4 million for ecological restoration and resilience planning for Pueblo communities within the Northern New Mexico enchanted Circle landscape.
- Utah: $597,000 for the Santa Clara River and endemic species restoration in the Shivwitz Band of Paiute Indians lands, and $381,000 to promote natural hydrology and sedimentation.
- Wyoming: $3 million to expand the Yellowstone Bison Conservation Transfer Program.
- Nevada: $2.4 million to ensure resilience for Lahontan Cutthroat Trout along the Summit Lake Paiute Tribe’s lands.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio (KNPR) in Las Vegas, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
