Our efforts must ensure that we meet the families' immediate survival needs without necessarily compromising the long term future of their children.

We have seen many times over that when it comes to drought, the families need to survive overrides the long term educational development of children.

The abolition of school fees -- it is critical. But it is a first step. Some people, they look at education and think you can just fix it like you can vaccinate against polio. But it is much more complicated.

Glacier National Park is as good as it gets, and may be the key to their future survival.

We're still in Florida doing long-term recovery efforts

The USGS presence and efforts in Alaska, while significant, are clearly not adequate to meet the growing needs of a frontier area that will see major growth as our need for resources increases and tourism continues to surge. There are many competing priorities in the lower 48 states.