SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Some of Illinois' best public spots for hunting, fishing and hiking could be at risk of losing about $54 million in federal support because Congress can't agree on the future of a program that funds public conservation and recreation projects.

The Land and Water Conservation Fund has been around for 50 years, but lawmakers let it expire at the end of September. Last week, they continued the debate, but Gelasia Croom, spokeswoman for the Nature Conservancy, said the program does important work, so there shouldn't be much to argue about.

"By removing these funds, you're affecting the economy, the ecology and, overall, the quality of our basic natural services, including drinking water and things like that," she said. "You know, we have to be careful."

At issue is a proposal from U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, which sets limits and restricts LWCF funding. However, two Senate bills call for reauthorization and full funding of the program. The LWCF gets its revenue from offshore oil and gas royalties.

Alan Rowsome, senior director of public relations for The Wilderness Society, said a compromise is needed. Unlike the Senate plans, he said, Bishop's proposal has no bipartisan support.

"It's out of step and out of touch with what most Americans want," he said, "and his proposal ... would forever alter a program that isn't broken and doesn't need fixing."

Bishop's plan has come under fire for proposing changes that run counter to the goals of the LWCF, such as redirecting about 20 percent of its funding back to the oil and gas developers. Bishop said the money will pay for education and job training programs in that industry.

Meanwhile, Croom said that by funding public land projects such as the Emiquon National Wildlife Refuge in central Illinois, the government also helps local farming businesses. She said the Nature Conservancy has been working to restore floodplains in that area.

"By having a wetland area there, and working in concert with federal agencies," she said, "we are able to address conservation issues as well as flooding and mitigating negative impacts from not taking care of that land."

Several members of Illinois' congressional delegation have signed letters in support of the LWCF, including Sen. Dick Durbin, a Democrat, and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a Republican.

Bishop's plan is online at naturalresources.house.gov. The reauthorization bills are House Resolution 1814, Senate Bill 338 and Senate Bill 890.


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Conservation groups are rejoicing over the decision Friday by the Biden administration to reject a proposed mining road in Alaska.

The 211-mile Ambler Road would have sliced through the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, severing the migration route for a Western Arctic Caribou herd.

Alex Johnson, interior Alaska director for the National Parks Conservation Association, said it was important for the feds to take a stand in Alaska so mining interests do not start eyeing other national parks.

"This is a very expensive, destructive and just highly speculative project that does not in any way support our clean energy goals as a country," Johnson contended. "And ultimately would permanently threaten the health and well-being of local communities and the tribes."

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski slammed the decision, warning it could limit jobs and tax revenues for Alaska by preventing exploration for minerals she said are important to national security, like copper, cobalt, gallium and germanium.

Jayme Dittmar, a photographer and filmmaker from Fairbanks, said the road would have been very disruptive to the 66 Native American villages along the proposed route.

"That'd be 168 trucks passing through close vicinity to the villages," Dittmar pointed out. "There would be hundreds of bridges built. It would dismantle a subsistence livelihood that's been in place for thousands and thousands of years."

The road was seen as a negative for tourism to the Brooks Range area. According to the Alaska Travel Industry Association, Californians make up 9% of visitors to Alaska.

Arizona conservation groups and sportsmen alike say they're pleased the Bureau of Land Management will now recognize conservation as an integral part of public lands management.

The agency's new rule puts protecting the environment on par with other land-use priorities.

Scott Garlid, executive director of the Arizona Wildlife Federation, said historically the BLM has done what he termed a "pretty good job," not only managing about 12 million acres of public lands in Arizona, but also protecting natural resources.

"They've got a tough job," Garlid acknowledged. "I think this rule helps make their job a little bit easier because it gives them some tools to balance those different demands on the 12 million acres that they manage."

Garlid predicted the rule will raise what he terms "harder-to-quantify conservation values" to the same level of importance as more extractive land uses like oil and gas exploration and mining. He thinks most Arizonans will recognize the new rule as a positive. A solid majority of Arizona voters across party lines say they are conservationists and use public lands for recreation.

To Garlid, the rule makes it clear the BLM is recognizing certain parts of federal lands, in Arizona and around the West, have been degraded. He contended restoration leases will be a good tool, allowing the BLM to lease acres to groups specifically to improve the conditions on a given landscape. He noted opponents of the new rule might see the leases as a way to "lock up" land but he argued it is not true.

"One example could be a nonprofit, like the Arizona Wildlife Federation," Garlid pointed out. "We could get a conservation lease from the Bureau of Land Management to do riparian restoration work, or work to remove invasive species along a creek bank."

According to the BLM, while a restoration or mitigation lease is in place, casual uses of the leased lands like recreation, hunting, fishing and research activities would generally continue.

Support for this reporting was provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.

State and federal agencies are collaborating to increase the use of prescribed fires in the Northwest.

Prescribed fire is the controlled use of burns to minimize the larger risks of wildfires and smoke. It is seen as an increasingly important strategy as wildfire seasons pose greater threats to the Northwest.

Casey Sixkiller, Northwest regional administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said authorities want to work together to maintain forest habitats.

"Prescribed burn is one of the best tools we have for making our forests more resilient against catastrophic wildfires and they help to manage and target hazardous fuels and make for healthier forests," Sixkiller explained.

Sixkiller pointed out the EPA is involved because wildfire smoke poses risks to people's health. The collaboration is between federal agencies, departments in Oregon and Washington, and tribal governments.

Sixkiller noted the collaboration needed a formal agreement to move forward.

"That is what we've been able to do here with this agreement," Sixkiller emphasized. "To get federal land managers and states and us all in the same room, making sure that we're all on the same page about what success looks like."

Sixkiller added the collaboration has another advantage: It helps drive engagement with communities potentially in the path of prescribed burns.

"They have the confidence that the effort that's gone into planning that activity has been thought out from soup to nuts," Sixkiller acknowledged. "And that they have a seat at the table and are being engaged and their concerns are being addressed as we go forward with that activity."


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