Sen. Cantwell on a Deadline to Save Conservation Funding
Chris Thomas, News Director
Monday, July 27, 2015
SEATTLE - Two U.S. senators, Washington Democrat Maria Cantwell and Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski, have forged an agreement to save the Land and Water Conservation Fund. But the deadline is tight, with just two months before the fund expires.
The money is used to preserve and improve access to everything from national wilderness areas to city and county parks and trails. For many of the projects, the local communities raise half the money and the fund matches it.
Amy Lindholm, LWCF campaign director for The Wilderness Society, says there's always a long list of projects that await funding.
"LWCF has been incredibly successful over the past 50 years, even when it's underfunded, it's been doing amazing work and has touched every single state, almost every county in America," she says. "Those projects are vital things to their communities, and we want to see them continue even if it's not fully funded."
Lindholm refers to the fact Congress typically raids the fund for other purposes. There are separate proposals to keep that from happening if it is reauthorized.
The bipartisan proposal is part of a larger energy bill in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and it might not move fast enough to meet the deadline.
The money for the fund comes from offshore oil and gas drilling royalties. Lindholm says the energy companies haven't objected to paying them but the fund was set to expire after 50 years.
"You're drawing down one natural resource that belongs to the American public, and you're reinvesting some of the profit from that into lasting natural resources for everyone to enjoy," says Lindholm. "That funding mechanism will expire on Sept. 30 and that leaves the whole program extremely vulnerable."
She says the energy bill is expected to be marked up in committee this week, and there's a chance the Land and Water Conservation Fund portion will be attached to other legislation to try to move it along more quickly.
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