Next Interior Memos weekly digest, 2025-11-20

Water and imperiled species, fire science and risk, Tribal reports, and more this week

Jacob Malcom

20 Nov 2025 • 8 min read

Wonder how the administration will try to strip protections from lovely, clean waters like this? They're trying their best to reduce the protections everywhere... CC-BY-SA Next Interior

It’s the week before Thanksgiving Day and there are many things going on with the Department of the Interior. (And we’ll be taking a break from the digest next week on account of the holiday.) We won’t try to cover all of what’s happening, but will share an upcoming webinar, some news around each of Interior’s mission areas, a few cross-cutting topics—including a post that Tony Irish shared on some DOI staffing news—then a photo to cap it off.

Next Interior Fellows webinar

Back in September, we introduced our inaugural Next Interior Fellows, Adam Auerbach and Vanessa Raymond. Now, we’re excited to spotlight their work, check in on their progress and hear their insights in our December 9 Next Interior Fellowship webinar!

Vanessa is bringing Alaskans into the studio to discuss critical minerals & the future of technology, society, and energy together on her weekly radio show, Them Thar Hills, on KSUA 91.5 FM (Fairbanks). She is also crafting an important resource which will synthesize DOI actions, guest & public feedback, and Arctic and Paciﬁc voices from the show to inform future engagement and critical minerals policy decisions.

Adam is supporting Next Interior’s work around visioning DOI’s future by holding listening sessions with partner organizations, academics, stakeholders, and rightsholders who have an interest in rebuilding a strong and effective DOI. Findings from Adam’s interviews will inform the Interior-focused Institutional Knowledge Project, which primarily involves conversations with departing DOI staff. Collectively, these insights from internal and external partners will inform Next Interior’s recommendations for how and where to most effectively rebuild DOI in the future.

Want to learn more about Adam and Vanessa’s important work, ask questions, and hear their insights? Join us on 09 December 2025, 3pm ET / 12pm PT. Register here:

Natural and Cultural Resources

Coming out of the shutdown there are several regulations from Interior and beyond that fundamentally affect—will cut against—the Department’s mission to “protect and manage natural and cultural resources” and the underlying legal requirements to do so. Here are a couple of the big ones this week: