Description

The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Alaska Aquatic Resources Program protects and restores riparian and wetland areas, aquatic habitats, and water resources to provide functioning ecosystems for a combination of balanced and diverse uses including fish and wildlife, and for the long-term needs of future generations. Policy guidance for the Program ensures that public land management based on multiple use and sustained yield provides healthy and productive riparian, wetland, and aquatic habitat, achieves land health standards, and considers society’s long-term needs for healthy watersheds. The issues the Program addresses are diverse and include restoration, habitat fragmentation and degradation, drought resiliency, water availability, and aquatic invasive species. Program staff provide professional expertise and policy guidance to BLM managers, Federal, State, Tribal, and local governments, and non-governmental partners on these issues, and implement the best management practices to minimize or avoid impacts to water resources, riparian and wetland areas, and aquatic habitats on public lands. This program supports projects funded through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Section 40804 (b) Ecosystem Restoration. This program also supports projects funded through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Sections 50221 Resilience, 50222 Ecosystems Restoration and 50303 DOI.The BLM Alaska Aquatic Resources Program’s core functions include:Ecosystem Structure and Function: Protect and restore the physical and ecological processes of functioning riparian and wetland areas, aquatic habitats, and water resources.Water Quality: Protect and restore the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of surface water and groundwater.Water Availability: Ensure that water is legally and physically available for beneficial uses, including protection and restoration actions.Riparian, Wetland, and Aquatic Habitat: Proactively protect and restore riparian, wetland, and aquatic habitats to ensure the presence, abundance, and diversity of healthy, self-sustaining, and desirable riparian, wetland, and aquatic species and other wildlife and plant populations that depend upon these habitats, including special status species.Decision Support: Inventory, assess, and monitor aquatic resources to inform our understanding of condition and trend, guide the BLM’s management activities, and assess regulatory compliance.Environmental Compliance: Ensure full compliance with applicable federal law, Executive Orders, regulations, and policy and with state law to the extent consistent with federal law.Internal & External Involvement: Consult, coordinate, cooperate, and collaborate with federal, state, tribal, and local governments and other programs, partners, and communities, to foster adaptive approaches to protection and restoration and implement education and outreach programs.The BLM Alaska Aquatic Resources Program continues to advance the Department of the Interior's priorities to address the climate crisis, restore balance on public lands and waters, advance environmental justice, and invest in a clean energy future. The BLM Alaska Aquatic Resources Program has an opportunity to work with partner organizations to assist with:Combating climate change and habitat loss impacts to aquatic resources.Restoring and connecting degraded aquatic resources.Increasing ecosystem resistance, resilience, and adaptability to drought, wildfires, and floods.Determining acceptable levels of hydrologic and ecological change given BLM management objectives.Advancing inventory, assessment, and monitoring activities and tools.Preventing the establishment and spread of invasive species.Increasing public knowledge of aquatic habitats on BLM managed lands, including with a targeted focus on communities of color, low-income families, and rural and indigenous communities.Refer to attachment: Suggested Focal Areas for BLM Alaska for further information