Native Plant Conservation Campaign News: Funding for botanic gardens, native plant restoration among grants withheld under new Department of the Interior rule.

July 26, 2018

 

Last year, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke instituted new policies requiring increased scrutiny of grants awarded by the Department of the Interior. This policy has resulted in delay or cancellation of numerous grants, including some that were to fund important native plant conservation and restoration projects.

 

According to the Washington Post, the funding directive instituting the review included an attachment listing Secretary Zinke's "Top Ten Priorities" by which each award would be scrutinized. The list includes improving access to public lands for hunting, fishing, energy and mineral production, utilizing natural resources, reducing the regulatory burden on business, and securing the U.S. southern border.

 

According to Yahoo News, the grants reduced or withheld under the new review include at least two native plant projects.

 

One is the Sagebrush in Prisons Project, run by the Oregon-based Institute for Applied Ecology that teaches prisoners to plant sagebrush in six Western states, thus restoring habitat that has been shrunk by roads, sprawl, and intensifying wildfires. Partial funding was restored after intervention from Oregon’s senators, but delay and reductions closed the program in five prisons for 2018. The Institute hopes for full funding for 2019.

 

Funding has also been cut off for the Chicago Botanic Garden’s continuing work to help implement the groundbreaking U.S. National Seed Strategy. As a result, the Garden has been forced to lay off botanical staff. The National Seed Strategy made history in 2015 by creating U.S. policy to encourage the use of locally adapted native plants for restoration, revegetation and other land management projects. The Strategy works to develop networks of suppliers and experts on locally appropriate native plant materials to advise and supply land management projects. It is the first such local native program worldwide!

 

On June 5, 12 U.S. Senators sent a letter to Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke asking him to explain the actions the political appointee (and childhood friend of Zinke) who has been put in charge of vetting payments of more than $50,000 to such Department of Interior grantees. The senators charge that the resulting funding delays have created “the appearance of improper political interference in program decisions that should always be merit-based.”  Interior has not yet responded to the letter, which was obtained by Yahoo News.

 

The Department of the Interior is responsible for managing vast areas of federal lands, natural resources, and imperiled species. Its holdings encompass more than 600 million acres of public lands, including national parks and national wildlife refuges. The Department also implements the federal Endangered Species Act, the landmark law that seeks to conserve the worlds most imperiled plants, animals, and habitats.