Today, Department of the Interior Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Shannon Estenoz and Assistant Secretary for Water and Science Tanya Trujillo visited the Anacostia Urban Waters Federal Partnership to announce Xavier Brown as the new Anacostia Urban Waters Ambassador.
Assistant Secretaries Estenoz and Trujillo delivered remarks announcing Brown, who will work to help restore the Anacostia River and improve STEM career opportunities, with a focus on the Anacostia High School in Ward 8. They were joined by University of the District of Columbia President Ronald Mason Jr and representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, and Washington, DC Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE).
Now celebrating its ten-year anniversary, the Urban Waters Federal Partnership (UWFP) brings together 15 federal agencies working collaboratively with local communities to restore urban waterways and surrounding lands, boost recreational opportunities, help local economies, and protect the health of Americans. The federal agencies currently support 20 locations across the nation with financial and technical assistance-the Anacostia River watershed is one of the 20 Urban Waters locations.
DOEE also announced the new Kingman Rangers program, which hires students from Anacostia High School to support restoration and education activities on Kingman and Heritage Islands and is funded by the American Rescue Plan.
The group visited the Aquatic Resource Education Center in Anacostia Park, where they received a brief introduction to interagency efforts to restore and enhance access to the Anacostia River, including through the Anacostia River Sediment Project, Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration process and installation of new boat docks funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They also toured the Anacostia River to view ecological restoration, the new FWS-funded boat dock on Kingman Island and early action areas for polychlorinated biphenyls remediation under the Anacostia River Sediment Project.
