Government slashes funding for environmental groups encouraging diversity

The U.S. government has cut $14 million in funding to environmental groups that highlight diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in their strategic plans, action items or websites. Even groups that included land acknowledgments, formal statements recognizing Indigenous nations as the original stewards of the land, faced cuts.

Under the Trump administration’s directives to cut agency spending, the Department of Interior has canceled multiple grants to eliminate what the administration has dictated as waste, often focused on groups that support DEI.

But removing DEI and land acknowledgements does not seem to assuage the cuts. Even those that have rethought or shifted their perspective on DEI have had their funding rescinded. California Trout, Inc. had numerous awards cut. The organization previously affirmed DEI on its website, though it wiped the endorsement from its site in September 2024. “Over the past three years, our organization has grown and evolved, deepening our understanding of what it means to meaningfully uphold these commitments,” the group states on its website in reference to the removal. They affirmed that the rescission had nothing to do with governmental actions.  

The news was originally reported in the Daily Caller.