Land Conservation Fund also in drought
The federal government has let the clock run out on the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), also known as America’s Best Park Program.
The fund has contributed more than $2.3 billion to California in the last 50 years to help preserve or maintain lands and waterways including, the Inyo and Sequoia national forests and the Bodie Bowl, that includes the Bodie Hills and the historic ghost town.
LWCF is funded wholly by royalties from offshore oil drilling, approximately $900 million annually. “It was a simple idea: use revenues from the depletion of one natural resource – offshore oil and gas – to support the conservation of another precious resource – our land and water,” LWCF states. It uses that money to support state and federal forests and parks primarily by purchasing land for permanent conservation.
The LWCF funds are also the only source of funding the US government has to purchase in-holding land, private land within the National Park System. Now that LWCF is gone, the land it was going to buy is being put on the open market. NPS cites several locations including Civil War battlefields and the Appalachian Trail where conservation is needed to preserve the integrity and continuity of these areas from development.
Dennis Weber from the Communications Office of California State Parks said in an email, “The LWCF has been one of the only annual competitive grant programs in California that funds local agency acquisition and development projects to create, expand, or improve parks and outdoor recreation opportunities. Cities, county agencies, and local park districts that have been eligible to request LWCF funding will no longer be able to propose and complete projects if the LWCF is not reauthorized.”
Local representative, Paul Cook (R-8th) supports the fund, going against his own party line.
Cook whose district has benefited from the fund, is trying to get the bill reauthorized and may also possibly amend it. Michael Fresquez, Senior Advisor and Communications Director for Cook told The Sheet in an email, “It’s been very useful with consolidating land ownership and protecting lands in important nature preserves.”
Fresquez said he was optimistic the fund would be reauthorized before there were any adverse effects.
According to National Park Service, the fund spent $500,000 in 1993-94 to purchase 569 acres for preservation of the Bodie Hills. It also helped fund development of Bishop City Park in the 1980s.
“The expiration of LWCF is an affront to every hunter and angler in the country,” said Land Tawney, Executive Director of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers. “LWCF is the best tool for providing and improving access to the public lands we own, and without it I fear that the best of what America has protected will be locked away behind private tracts that rim our gamelands and national forests.”
