Subject: Draft Secretarial Order on Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation
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Date: Mon, 11 Jan 2010 10:26:23 -0700

THE SECRETARY OF THE
INTERIOR

Washington

ORDER NO.
3289

SIGNATURE DATE:
September 14, 2009

Subject:
Addressing the Impacts of Climate Change on America’s Water, Land, and Other
Natural and Cultural Resources

Sec. 1  Purpose and Background.  Secretarial Order No. 3285, issued on
March 11, 2009, made production and transmission of renewable energy on public
lands a priority for the Department.
This Order establishes a Department-wide approach for applying scientific
tools to increase understanding of climate change and to coordinate an effective
response to its impacts on tribes and on the land, water, ocean, fish and
wildlife, and cultural heritage resources that the Department manages.  This Order replaces Secretarial Order
No. 3226, Amendment No. 1, issued on January 16, 2009, and reinstates the
provisions of Secretarial Order No. 3226, issued on January 19, 2001.

To fulfill our nation’s vision for a
clean energy economy, Interior is now managing America’s public lands and oceans
not just for balanced oil, natural gas, and coal development, but also – for the
first time ever – to promote environmentally responsible renewable energy
development.  Sun, wind, biomass,
and geothermal energy from our public and tribal lands is creating new jobs and
will power millions of American homes and electric vehicles.

The Department is also taking the
lead in protecting our country’s water, land, fish and wildlife, and cultural
heritage and tribal lands and resources from the dramatic effects of climate
change that are already occurring – from the Arctic to the Everglades.  The realities of climate change require
us to change how we manage the land, water, fish and wildlife, and cultural
heritage and tribal lands and resources we oversee.  For example:

·

New water management imperatives associated with climate change may
require restoration of natural systems and construction of new infrastructure to
reduce new flood risks or to capture early run-off.

·

Strategies to address sea level rise may require acquisition of upland
habitat and creation of wetlands and other natural filters and barriers to
protect against sea level rise and storm surges.  It may be necessary to relocate certain
iconic and culturally historic structures.

·

Shifting wildlife and habitat populations may require investments in new
wildlife corridors.

·

New invasions of exotic species and new wildland fire threats due to
longer fire seasons and more severe droughts will require innovation and more
effective ways of managing the Department’s resources.

The Department of the Interior, with
its 67,000 employees and scientific and resource management expertise, is
responsible for helping protect the nation from the impacts of climate
change.  In particular the
Department must:

·

Adapt its water management strategies to address the possibility of
shrinking water supplies and more frequent and extended droughts to continue to
supply drinking water to more than 31 million people and irrigation water to
140,000 farmers.

·

Wisely manage millions of acres of parks, refuges and other public lands,
and prudently exercise its shared responsibility for managing the 1.7 billion
acres of the U.S. outer continental shelf.

·

Conserve and manage fish and wildlife resources, including over 800
native migratory bird species and nearly 2,000 federally listed threatened and
endangered species.

·

Protect cultural and archaeological resources and iconic structures that
may be affected by climate change.

·

Address the impacts of climate change on American Indians and Alaska
Natives, for whom the Department holds trust responsibilities on behalf of the
Federal government.

·

Continue to provide state-of-the art science to better understand the
impacts of climate change and to develop science-based adaptive management
strategies for natural and cultural resource managers.

·

Continue its work to quantify the amount of carbon stored in our forests,
wetlands, and grasslands, identifying areas where carbon dioxide can be safely
stored underground, and ways to reduce the Department’s carbon footprint.

Sec. 2   Authority.  This Order is issued under the authority
of Section 2 of Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1950 (64 Stat. 1262), as
amended.

Sec. 3   Coordinating the Department’s Response to
Climate Change Impacts on Our Resources.  This Order establishes a Climate Change Response Council within
the Office of the Secretary that will execute a coordinated Department-wide
strategy to increase scientific understanding of and development of effective
adaptive management tools to address the impacts of climate change on our
natural and cultural resources.  The
Climate Change Response Council will be composed of the Secretary (Chair),
Deputy Secretary (Vice-Chair), Counselor to the Secretary (Vice-Chair),
Assistant Secretaries, Bureau Directors and the Solicitor.  The Council will help coordinate
activities within and among the Department’s agencies and bureaus to develop and
implement an integrated strategy for responding to climate change impacts
involving the resources managed by the Department.  The Department’s Climate Change Response
Council will also coordinate its climate change activities with all relevant
Federal Departments and agencies including, but not limited to, the Council on
Environmental Quality, the Office of Energy and Climate Change, the Office of
Science and Technology Policy, the National Science and Technology Council, the
Department of Agriculture, the Department of Commerce, the Department of
Defense, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Climate Change Response Council
will implement Department-specific climate change activities through the
following mechanisms:

(a)
Climate Change Response Planning Requirements.  Each bureau and office of the Department
must consider and analyze potential climate change impacts when undertaking
long-range planning exercises, setting priorities for scientific research and
investigations, developing multi-year management plans, and making major
decisions regarding potential use of resources under the Department’s purview.
These requirements were set forth
in Secretarial Order

No. 3226, and remain in effect.  The organizational changes made by this
Order will enable the bureaus and agencies to fulfill these planning
requirements.

(b)     DOI
Regional Climate Change Response Centers.  Management decisions made in response to
climate change impacts must be informed by science and require that scientists
work in tandem with those managers who are confronting climate change impacts
and evaluating options to respond to such impacts.  Pursuant to P.L. 110-161, the United
States Geological Survey (USGS) has been developing regional science centers to
provide climate change impact data and analysis geared to the needs of fish and
wildlife managers as they develop adaptation strategies in response to climate
change.  These centers are currently
known as “regional hubs” of the National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center, and are being developed in close
collaboration with Interior agencies and other federal, state, university, and
non-governmental partners.

The Climate Change Response Council
will work with USGS and other Department bureaus to rename these regional
science centers as Regional Climate Change Response Centers and broaden their
mandate to encompass other climate-change-related impacts on Departmental
resources.  These eight Response
Centers will synthesize and integrate climate change impact data and develop
tools that the Department’s managers and partners can use when managing the
Department’s land, water, fish and wildlife, and cultural heritage resources.

(c)
Landscape Conservation Cooperatives.  Given the broad impacts of climate
change, management responses to such impacts must be coordinated on a
landscape-level basis.  For example,
wildlife migration and related needs for new wildlife corridors, the spread of
invasive species and wildfire risks, typically will extend beyond the borders of
National Wildlife Refuges, BLM lands, or National Parks.  Additionally, some bureau
responsibilities (e.g., Fish and Wildlife Service migratory bird and threatened
and endangered species responsibilities) extend nationally and globally.  Because of the unprecedented scope of
affected landscapes, Interior bureaus and agencies must work together, and with
other federal, state, tribal and local governments, and private landowner
partners, to develop landscape-level strategies for understanding and responding
to climate change impacts.  Interior
bureaus and agencies, guided by the
Climate Response Council, will work to stimulate the development of a
network of collaborative “Landscape Conservation Cooperatives.”  These cooperatives, which already have
been formed in some regions, will work interactively with the relevant DOI
Regional Climate Change Response Center(s) and help coordinate adaptation
efforts in the region.

Sec. 4  Additional Departmental Action to Mitigate
Climate Change.  In accordance
with Secretarial Order No. 3285, the Department has prioritized development of
renewable energy on public lands and offshore waters to reduce our dependence on
foreign oil and to reduce greenhouse gas pollution.  This Order establishes two additional
projects to mitigate climate change:
the DOI Carbon Storage Project, and the DOI Carbon Footprint
Project.  Additional mitigation
projects will be encouraged and supported by the Climate Change Response
Council.

(a)     The
DOI Carbon Storage Project.  This project is being implemented
under P.L. 110-140, “The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007,” which
gives the Department statutory responsibility to develop carbon sequestration
methodologies for geological (i.e., underground) and biological (e.g., forests
and rangelands) carbon storage.  The
USGS has the lead in administering the Carbon Storage Project, but will work
closely with other bureaus and agencies in the Department and external partners
to enhance carbon storage in geologic formations and in plants and soils in a
manner consistent with the Department’s responsibility to provide comprehensive,
long-term stewardship of its resources.
The DOI Carbon Storage Project is vital for successful domestic and
global geological and biological carbon sequestration efforts.

(b)     The
DOI Carbon Footprint Project. The project will develop a unified greenhouse
gas emission reduction program, including setting a baseline and reduction goal
for the Department’s greenhouse gas emissions and energy use.  The Assistant Secretary for Policy,
Management and Budget will have the lead in administering the DOI Carbon
Footprint Project, with the cooperation of all of the Department’s agencies and
bureaus.

Sec. 5
American Indians and Alaska Natives.
Climate change may disproportionately affect tribes and their lands
because they are heavily dependent on their natural resources for economic and
cultural identity.  As the
Department has the primary trust responsibility for the Federal government for
American Indians, Alaska Natives, and tribal lands and resources, the Department
will ensure consistent and in-depth government-to-government consultation with
tribes and Alaska Natives on the Department’s climate change initiatives.  Tribal values are critical to
determining what is to be protected, why, and how to protect the interests of
their communities.  The Department
will support the use of the best available science, including traditional
ecological knowledge, in formulating policy pertaining to climate change.  The Department will also support
substantive participation by tribes in deliberations on climate-related
mechanisms, agreements, rules, and regulations.

Sec. 6
Implementation.  The
Deputy Secretary is responsible for ensuring implementation of all aspects of
this Order.  This responsibility may
be delegated as appropriate.  This
Order does not alter or affect any existing duty or authority of individual
bureaus.

Sec. 7  Effective Date.  This Order is effective immediately and
will remain in effect until its provisions are converted to the Departmental
Manual or until it is amended, superseded, or revoked, whichever occurs first.

/s/ Kenneth L. Salazar

Secretary of the Interior

SO#3289 9/14/09