Next Interior Memos

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View from a rocky outcrop overlooking to merging rivers, with a small down at the junction, and blues skies with a few clouds overhead.

Next Interior Memos weekly digest, 31 July 2025

The US Capitol dome under mostly cloudy skies.

Public Involvement & Democracy in NEPA

Wind turbines stand on a flat agricultural area with heavy clouds overhead but the sunset/sunrise peeking through on the horizon.

Next Interior Memos weekly digest, 24 July 2025

Power transmission lines run through a forested, hilly landscape with a swath of trees cleared for the power lines.

We Need a Trust Fund - or Superfund - for AI

AI is everywhere, it is impacting people, society, and nature, and we need to start taking action - for Interior and beyond

A duck with a white forehead, a green head patch, and a brown body with fine barring on the feathers floats in water.

Next Interior Memos weekly digest, 17 July 2025

Sunrise through a tree on the bank of a river under partly cloudy skies, with a tree-covered mountain across the river.

Next Interior Fellows Program

A cluster of cactus bulbs with bright red flowers.

Next Interior Memos weekly digest, 10 July 2025

Whitish, red, and green fireworks explode over and reflect in a body of water, with the silhouettes of trees in the distance.

Next Interior Memos weekly digest, 03 July 2025

A ball of yellow-orange fireworks explodes against a night sky while a more distain "fountain" of fireworks goes off below. The lights are reflected on water in the foreground.

Independence Day, the Four Freedoms, and public servants

A building with a tower extends into the dark blue, pre-dawn sky, with a few tree silhouettes to the left and a crescent moon above.

Next Interior Memos weekly digest, 27 June 2025

It's been another busy week for Interior and things that matter to its mission and serving the country

An adobe church tower in the center of the photo with clear skies and in dawn's early light behind, and a few trees surrounding.

WGA 2025: Some highlights and thoughts from the Western Governors' Association meeting

A lot of topics relevant to Interior, like public lands, Tribes, AI and energy, and more. Some good, some not-so-good.

Forested landscape with a river in the mid-ground, a few mountains, and mostly cloudy skies with the sun shining through.

Next Interior Memos weekly digest, 19 June 2025

This week, Next Interior Memos will begin trying out a weekly digest to bring you a high-level view of what happened last week, what’s coming up, and other recaps of interest.

Front of a stone building with four doors visible, and the words "Department of the Interior" inscribed above the doors.

The Values of the Administration

Or, the Fiscal Year 2026 President's budget request for Interior

The U.S. Capitol Building under partly cloudy skies, and with a few people standing in the foreground.

Members Day with House Natural Resources

Each Congress, committees set up a day when members of Congress can raise any issues within the committee's jurisdiction. Today it is House Natural Resources, which plays a huge role in Interior.

An adult mountain goat looks at the photographer while a young mountain goat looks into the distance. Both are standing on a rock outcrop with a valley in the background.

Next Interior Memos

Updating how we engage from Next Interior

City Nature Challenge from Interior's lands and waters

City Nature Challenge from Interior's lands and waters

This time last year, I was out in the American Southwest with family and friends, engaged in competition. We were finding plants and critters from the valley bottom along the Rio Grande to spruce-pine forests over 10,000' in elevation. The lands and waters of the Department of the

The U.S. Capitol building, lit by sunlight, with partly cloudy skies overhead.

Congress to claw back foreign aid funding?

May 5th. That's shaping up to be the deadline for the first of what may be many votes by Congress to take back funding it's already appropriated to federal agencies. The DC news organization Punchbowl is reporting that this package of rescissions will be focused on

Map of the US (Lower 48) with Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico inset; text showing select statistics about what Interior provides the Nation.

Background Featured

America depends on the U.S. Department of the Interior every day

But Interior is under threat

A group of five elk stand in a grass-shrub habitat, with tall, wind-blown sand dunes in the mid-ground, and wooded mountains are in the background.

Next Interior is here for current and future generations of Americans

Next Interior supports the mission and the people of the Department of the Interior to benefit current and future generations of Americans. We stand for a strong U.S. Department of the Interior that is able to realize its full potential in serving the Nation. This means: * Elevating what Interior