Interior Highlights Partnerships on its Homepage

(WASHINGTON) - To highlight the importance of partnerships, the Department of the Interior today added a new section to its homepage --'Partnerships at Interior' at http://www.doi.gov/partnerships/.

The partnerships website is designed to aid employees and potential and current partners and to emphasize to the public that Interior is a partnering organization.

“We cannot ‘go it alone’ in meeting the daunting natural resource challenges that are part of our Department’s mission, nor should we,” said Lynn Scarlett, assistant secretary of the Interior for Policy, Management and Budget. “Our best work is done when we engage a nation of ‘citizen stewards.’ They can enrich our perspectives and expand the possibilities for resource protection and use."

Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton has emphasized partnerships as a key way to reduce environmental conflict. She has directed that the 4Cs -Communication, Consultation, Cooperation all in the service on Conservation-- be the guiding philosophy for all the Department's activities.

The Secretary's 4C's, Partnerships and Collaborative Action Team developed the website to provide department-wide resources and links to bureau websites for more specific information.

The 'Partnerships at Interior' website also provides links to information about types of partnerships, frequently asked questions, partnership ethics, partnership legal frameworks, partnership tools, funding/grants, volunteerism, contacts and partnership links.

The website's links also include the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) partnership websites. The partnering staff from both these federal agencies assisted in the development of the website.

"We have come to realize the inherent value in working with citizen stewards to join with us and produce a better outcome than we could produce on our own," said Bob Lamb, a co-chair for the 4C's, Partnerships and Collaborative Action Team and senior advisor to Lynn Scarlett. "The 'Partnerships at Interior' website is an effective way to accelerate the adoption of practices, processes and tools to aid natural resource-based collaboration."