U.S. Department of Interior

A group led by the Interior Department has released recommendations to reform mining practices on public lands.

Last month, the U.S. House proposed sweeping cuts to the upcoming budgets of the Interior Department and Environmental Protection Agency. Now, a Senate committee has restored most of what the agencies are asking for.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland has announced an expansion of a National Park Service historical site dedicated to the massacre by U.S. troops of more than 200 Native Americans in what is now southeastern Colorado.

The goal of the Secretary’s Tribal Advisory Committee is to get input from tribal leaders on Department of the Interior issues impacting Indigenous communities before policy is made.

Colorado River water managers are facing a monumental task. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has asked seven western states to commit to an unprecedented amount of conservation and do it before a deadline later this summer. This comes amid shrinking water levels in the nation's largest reservoirs.

The Interior Department announced the distribution of $279 million to outdoor recreation and conservation projects across the U.S., with tens of millions of dollars going to states in the Mountain West.

Deputy Secretary of the Interior Tommy Beaudreau said the New Belen Wasteway, a Bureau of Reclamation project that routes agricultural runoff back to the Rio Grande, is an example of an investment in water infrastructure that has huge impacts on surrounding communities.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced two measures today to boost water levels in Lake Powell, keeping them high enough to continue generating hydropower at the Glen Canyon Dam. Both moves are being framed as painful but necessary band-aids.One measure will send water from Flaming Gorge Reservoir to help refill Lake Powell. About 500,000 acre-feet of water will be released from Flaming Gorge Reservoir, which straddles the border between Wyoming and Utah. Another measure will reduce the amount of water sent downstream, withholding supplies from Lake Mead, a reservoir that provides storage for California, Arizona and Nevada.

The Interior Department is reopening lease sales on public lands. However, the agency announced that it was 80% less acreage than the oil and gas industry nominated for leasing. The Interior also increased royalty rates.

Lake Powell is is strained by more than two decades of drought, and its water levels are dipping dangerously low. The reservoir passed an important threshold. Water levels went below 3,525 feet – the last major milestone before a threat to hydropower generation at the Glen Canyon Dam. What's next for the nation's second-largest reservoir?