Department of the Interior
Websites
• DOI’s Strategic Response to Climate Change Website
This Website provides information on the Department of Interior’s integrated strategy on climate-change science and adaptation. This strategy will serve DOI’s land, fish, wildlife, water, marine, tribal, and cultural heritage managers, as well as federal, state, local, and tribal representatives; nongovernmental organizations; private landowners; and other stakeholder partners.
• DOI’s Climate Science Centers Website
These Climate Science Centers provide scientific information, tools, and techniques that land, water, wildlife, and cultural resource managers and other interested parties can apply to anticipate, monitor, and adapt to climate change and associated ecologically-driven responses at the regional and local levels.
• DOI’s Landscape Conservation Cooperatives Website
These cooperatives, formed and directed by land, water, wildlife, and cultural resource managers and interested public and private organizations, function within a specific landscape, but also are intended to be part of a national and international network that develops strategies for understanding and responding to climate change.
• U.S. Geological Survey Global Change Science
The U.S. Geological Survey Global Change program aims to understand climate change and the interrelationships among earth surface processes, ecological systems, and human activities. This includes understanding current changes in the context of pre-historic and recent earth processes, distinguishing between natural and human-influenced changes, and recognizing ecological and physical responses to changes in climate.
• U.S. Geological Survey International Polar Year Website
The International Polar Year (2007-2008) was an intense scientific campaign to explore new frontiers in polar science, improve understanding of the role of the polar regions in global processes, and engage the public in polar discovery.
• National Park Service Climate Friendly Parks
DOI’s National Park Service’s Climate Friendly Parks program provides parks with the tools and resources to address climate change to address climate change both within park boundaries and the surrounding community.
Documents
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Land-Based Wind Energy Guidelines (March 23, 2012)
The voluntary guidelines, issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, urge developers to consult as early as possible with FWS and other conservation agencies to assess risks to wildlife in siting wind power projects regardless of size and whether projects are sited on private or public land. The guidelines also are intended to wind-energy project developers identify species of concern, including migratory birds; bats; bald and golden eagles, and other birds of prey; prairie and sage grouse; and endangered or threatened species.
(See Related Story in World Climate Change Report-Subscriber Access)
DOI Policy Statement on Climate Change Adaptation (June 3, 2011)
The Department of Interior released this Policy Statement on Climate Change Adaptation to assist the agency in identifying how climate change is likely to affect its ability to achieve mission, operations, policy, and program objectives.
Interior’s Plan for a Coordinated, Science-Based Response to Climate Change Impacts on Our Land, Water, and Wildlife Resources (DOI) (Sept. 27, 2010)
This document outlines the Interior Department’s strategy to respond to climate change, in part, by establishing Climate Science Centers (CSCs) and Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs). The centers and cooperatives will integrate DOI science and management expertise with that of other agencies to provide information and best management practices available to support strategic adaptation and mitigation efforts on public and private lands in the United States and internationally.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar Order No. 3289.
Secretarial Order No. 3289: Addressing the Impacts of Climate Change on America’s Water, Land, and Other Natural, and Cultural Resources, signed Sept. 14, 2009, launched a climate-change-response strategy and provides a framework for coordination among our DOI bureaus and to integrate science and management expertise with that of other agencies.