Press Releases

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, today emphasized the importance of bolstering climate change resilience and supporting tribal co-stewardship in Acadia National Park and other national parks across the county. In a budget hearing this morning with Department of the Interior (DOI) Secretary Deb Haaland, Pingree highlighted new funding from the Inflation Reduction Act for Acadia National Park, which will be used to implement the “Two-Eyed Seeing” model to meaningfully integrate Indigenous Knowledge with western science. 

“The project will build on 15 years of consultation at Acadia National Park, Saint Croix Island International Historic Site, and Roosevelt Campobello International Park with the Wabanaki Tribes,” Pingree said during the hearing. “This is just one example of the amazing work the Inflation Reduction [Act] funding will support to prepare parks across the country to be resilient to climate change.”

In February, the National Park Service announced $195 million for climate restoration and resilience projects over the next decade. 

Secretary Haaland said the National Park Service’s budget includes $4 million for additional climate vulnerability studies and $2.5 million for climate related natural resource projects at the national parks. 

“As you know, more than one third of coastal parks are at significant risk from sea level rise, coastal erosion and storm surge that's happening on all of our coasts,” Secretary Haaland said. “[…] Both of those investments could help the National Park Service make progress in addressing climate resiliency.”

Pingree also called attention to the severe back-to-back storms Maine endured in recent months, refuting Rep. Ryan Zinke’s (R-Mont.) assertion that sea level rise is not due to climate change. 

“You can say that there's some kind of tectonic plate shift going on or this isn't really real or whatever, but I invite you to come to my communities. These are fishermen. These are communities that are going to disappear, not to mention the tribal communities,” Pingree said. “[…] I thoroughly invite any anyone from this committee come spend some time in my district and see the coast of Maine. We’d love to have you. But you're going to you're going to see some tears in the eyes of fishermen and people.”

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Clip 1: 

Pingree:  Last week, Acadia National Park announced that the park will be receiving $950,000 in funding from the Inflation Reduction Act to create a model for addressing climate change vulnerabilities of coastal archeological sites, collections, landscapes and ethnographic resources. Something we we've we have a lot of in Maine, including in my own community. Acadia will be using the “Two-Eyed Seeing” model to meaningfully integrate indigenous knowledge with Western science.

The project will build on 15 years of consultation at Acadia National Park, Saint Croix Island International Historic Site and Roosevelt Campobello International Park with the Wabanaki Tribes. This is just one example of the amazing work the Inflation Reduction [Act] funding will support to prepare parks across the country to be resilient to climate change. The National Park Service just announced projects to be funded by the full $195 million.

 So could you just tell me I know a little bit about what's going on in my own state, but I'd like to know what other types of work are going on and how the funding will work to support the work across the park system. 

Sec. Haaland: Yes. Thank you so much. We have been extremely proud of the work we've been able to do with tribes. I appreciate you mentioning indigenous knowledge. We believe very strongly that that is science that we all need to pay attention to, and it is really helping us to steward these lands through our tribal co stewardship agreements across the country. We've signed probably 200 of those, and there's probably 60 more that are that we're working on to ensure that we are that we're not missing anything because tribes have the experience more.

And as you know, yes, more than one third of coastal parks are at significant risk from sea level rise, coastal erosion and storm surge that's happening on all of our coasts. The NPS budget includes $4 million for additional climate vulnerability studies and $2.5 million for climate related natural resource projects at the parks. Both of those investments could help the National Park Service make progress in addressing climate resiliency.

We'll keep our eyes on that and continue to work as needed and certainly bring tribes into the fold when it comes to how we steward those lands. 

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Clip 2:

Zinke: Have you ever heard the term glacial isostatic adjustment?

Sec. Haaland: I have not. 

Zinke: Okay. So glacial isostatic adjustment on the East Coast is because we had glaciers, large, thick, heavy glaciers on the plate to the north in Maine, all the way down to Jersey. So when that plate moves and you have the glaciers on it and the glaciers are removed over time, there is an ice or static adjustment. So if you read that report, it would have talked about it and also would have talked about sea level rise versus depression. And I know you're probably not aware, but the sea level rise fully compensated for also the shift. The sinking is about one millimeter a year.

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Pingree: I guess I can't help myself. I want to mention something about sea level rise since you brought it up, our current Mr. Chair, and I really appreciate your willingness to focus on this, whether it's the tribes or other states. I guess I just have to say I'm happy to read the 2017 report. It is seven years and a lot has changed.

 And I think, um maybe because you're in Montana, you don't see what I see in in the on the coast of Maine. So I'd be happy to invite you out any time or anyone on the committee who would like to take a look at this, who has some concerns about whether or not this is real. And I don't know about glacial isostatic adjustment, but I'm going to learn all about it.

But I just want to tell you, this year we had two back-to-back severe storms. And I I'm sure in 2017, nobody in my community a fishing town 12 miles off the coast of Maine on an island, thought there would ever be anything like we saw this year. Two back-to-back storms. We have a 180-year-old ship boatyard, basically in our district, in our little town of 400. Everybody turned out between the first and the second storm because they were so worried that this building that's been there forever and the fishermen depend on was going to wash away. They had block and tackles and chains. They put cement blocks on the floor. They did everything they could possibly think of to try to hold it on land, to try to keep it there.

And right now, we don't know if it'll survive. It got through that storm. It got through the second storm, but we're probably going to lose it. And you can come visit the coast to Maine and see up and down the coast of Maine, 150-year-old piers everywhere, communities like Stonington, Maine, fishing towns, they're washing away. This was a tide like we had never seen before in a storm surge from the southeast, which is weather we used to never have before.

So you can say that there's some kind of tectonic plate shift going on or this isn't really real or whatever, but I invite you to come to my communities. These are fishermen. These are communities that are going to disappear, not to mention the tribal communities. I'm just talking about our fishing towns, our community piers. They're going away. This tide this tide is higher than we have ever imagined could happen to us. And it's not even there yet. It's not even anywhere near what the maps say. Places that are peninsulas are going to turn into islands. Communities are losing their sewer systems, their infrastructure. It's all going away. 

So it's one thing to sit inland in Montana. You get mountains, you can run to the top, but we don't have those options. And however we want to describe why this is happening, I just want to thank you, Madam Secretary, in your department for putting this focus on because this is extremely real to us. It's very emotional to us. It's the end of so many of our communities and we don't know where we're going to get the money to deal with all this.

We don't know how we're going to move to higher ground when there isn't higher ground or it's already filled up. Our island communities, our coastal communities. This is really serious to us. So thank you for your attention to us. 

I thoroughly invite any anyone from this committee come spend some time in my district and see the coast of Maine. We’d love to have you. But you're going to you're going to see some tears in the eyes of fishermen and people. Hard core Republican conservatives who don't always vote for me, but they want to know what we're going to do about this. And I invite you to join us in doing that. 

Sec. Haaland: Ranking Member If I could just say very quickly, Maine was one of the first places I visited when I came into this position … at Acadia National Park and so I, I just want you to know that we care deeply about every single community that is facing these issues. It's, you know, it's American traditions, the fishermen. And we equate that with when we think about those fishermen, we think about your state. So it's it is heartbreaking when you think that these are lives of people that are getting washed away. And so we're doing everything we possibly can to address the issues. 

Pingree: I thank you for that and I thank you for visiting our state. The challenge is and I think this is what many of us saw this winter that we'd never really had really had knowledge in this visceral way. This is so much bigger than any one of us.

This is so much bigger than the budget that we have. This is so much bigger than our petty arguments about what's real and not real. You just got to come and see it to understand. And if it can happen twice this winter, you know what's coming next year. Who knows?

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