March 16, 2021 — Oregon’s conservation community is celebrating the historic bipartisan confirmation of Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, the first Indigenous person to serve as a Cabinet member. Secretary Haaland’s leadership of the Department of the Interior is especially significant in light of the Department and the agencies it oversees’ historic and ongoing role in the systematic oppression and displacement of Native American communities since its creation 150 years ago. She enters the role at a time of unprecedented and urgent need for action on a host of environmental crises impacting public lands, from climate change to mass wildlife extinctions to fossil fuel extraction and ongoing irresponsible old growth logging.
