CONGRESS: REAUTHORIZE THE LAND AND WATER CONSERVATION FUND

The George Washington-Jefferson National Forest—covering over 1.8 million acres in Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky, it is one of the largest blocks of public land in the eastern United States, however non-contiguous and geographically tattered.

    In May of 2014, a portion of that map—the Old Dominion’s legacy of public land access—was filled in. Thanks to the land ethic and cooperation of the Campbell family—private landowners from Nelson County—317 acres surrounding Spy Rock were purchased through the National Park Service with funds provided by the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). Consequently, a portion of the Appalachian Scenic Trail and the scenic view from the Rock were preserved while providing opportunities to better wildlife management and access for outdoor recreationists.

    Over the course of its 50-year history, the LWCF has effectively leveraged the preservation of over 5 million such acres.

    Unfortunately, in September of 2015, Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, the House Natural Resources Committee chairman, allowed the LWCF to expire, representing anti-federal leanings present in parts of the West where the majority of the country’s federal public land is located.

    Conceived in 1964, the LWCF embodies Congress’ bipartisan promise to work to preserve public natural areas, water resources, cultural heritage, and other recreational spaces in the American image—and at no cost to taxpayers. A small fraction of revenue generated from oil and gas companies drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf has historically provided Congress with up to $900 million dollars to be funneled into the Fund annually, though in recent years, about two thirds of that money has been rerouted to fund other, unrelated projects, and is untraceable. 

    The funds that are allocated to the Fund are divvied up into federal and state pools, to benefit an array of different spending projects. On the federal side, funds are utilized to purchase inholdings—swaths of privately-owned land within or adjacent to federally-owned public land. Interested landowners are offered fair market value by a land trust or group like the Nature Conservancy, and the land is then sold to the state or federal agency.

    State-allocated money is utilized more broadly. “State dollars flow to each state to spend on state parks, greenways, county parks, ballfields, trails, etc.,” said Jay Leutze, a trustee of the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy. “There is also a powerful part of the program called Forest Legacy that purchases conservation easements from working forest owners. They get to stay on the land, own it, timber it—Forever. It’s a great program that helps the local timber industry and families. Land gets protected and the government has no maintenance cost.”

    In August of 2015, Secretary of the Interior, Sally Jewell, signed into effect the apportionment of $42.8 million to the states.

    Now that the LWCF is in limbo, so are the projects scheduled for the 2016 fiscal year. In Virginia alone, over $8 million dollars was on schedule to purchase land within the Washington-Jefferson National Forest. Still another $15 million was set to protect critical resources within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and the New River headwaters. While this money will still flow towards these projects this year, most of these deals will require more than a year’s time, and will likely outlast their monetary resources.

    Likewise, the expiration of the LWCF on September 30, earlier this year, was certainly counted as a loss within the sportsman’s community. However, no time has been lost in launching a campaign to reauthorize it with full funding.

    Sen. Steve Daines, R-Montana told Backcountry Hunters and Anglers that reauthorization of the LWCF has “a higher probability if we attach it to another piece of legislation.” Senator Richard Burr, R-North Carolina, a local champion of the LWCF, continues to seek out that vehicle bill. Current candidates include the currently-proposed omnibus spending bill or a highway bill that will fund the Highway Trust Fund. Regardless, LWCF advocates must first convince Congressional leadership to allow the amendment of such a bill with the LWCF reauthorization provision.

    On the morning of November 5, Rep. Bishop presented a bill including his own changes to the LWCF, among them a call to limit federal land and water acquisition at 3.5 percent. He is scheduled to hold a hearing on the bill on November 18—just three Congressional work days following this publication.

    It is critical to the future of public land and conservation that the LWCF be reauthorized (preferably, with full funding). Virginia’s own Rep. Rob Wittman, R-VA, currently sits on the House Natural Resources Committee, and has historically been in favor of the LWCF. As Virginia sportsmen, this is our point of contact. Make your voices heard.□

*Originally published in the Rural Virginian

LAND & WATER CONSERVATION FUND SET TO EXPIRE IN 30 DAYS

Chances are good that the last time you spent time in your favorite outdoor setting, you spent it on land purchased by the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), which is set to expire in 30 days.

Photo by Matt Reilly

    Created in 1965 in a bipartisan Congressional agreement, the LWCF is a motor that carries with it the mission of protecting America’s natural areas, natural resources, and historical and cultural sites.  The initiative called for $900 million—a small fraction—of fees paid by offshore oil and gas mining companies to be appropriated into the fund annually.  The fund, then, was to be used to protect wilderness areas, national parks, working ranches, greenways, wildlife corridors, and riparian lands, and to assist in the building of parks, recreational sport fields, and trail systems in all 50 states.

    Around the financial and legislative power of the LWCF formed the LWCF Coalition, a grouping of over 1000 conservation groups across the country united for a common cause.  “My land trust, Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy, is a member because we realize that in order to protect fragile lands along the Appalachian Trail and the Blue Ridge Parkway we need a steady investment to meet our goals,” said Jay Leutze, a trustee of the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy who enjoys hiking on and around the Appalachian Trail near his home in Asheville, North Carolina.  “Collectively we hope to raise our voices to tell the story that land conservation is a bipartisan no-brainer.  Everybody loves clean water and places to hike and camp.  But not everybody knows how much work goes into securing even a single acre of protection for future generations.”

Virginia, specifically, has received about $283 million over the past 50 years from the fund, protecting such cherished natural environments as the James River and Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuges, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and the Jefferson/Washington National Forest. 

    However, the LWCF is much broader in its efforts than these nationally-recognized settings.  “A lot of the funding flows directly to Virginia so that local communities can create bike trails and greenways, and even soccer fields,” said Jay Leutze, a trustee for the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy who enjoys hiking on and around the Appalachian Trail.  “In Virginia there is a real challenge to create wildlife corridors and buffer historical sites from suburban sprawl.  LWCF is the best tool for protecting the places we all cherish.”

    Unfortunately, that tool has been underutilized over the course of its five-decade life.  “Dishonest budgeting” has been rampant—over $19 billion has been wrongly diverted from the LWCF account and utilized elsewhere over the last 50 years.  “That money would have gone a long way to fixing some of our half-finished national forests and state parks,” said Leutze.  “When landowners inside our national forests and along the routes of the Appalachian Trail are willing to sell for a fair price, we really need the funds to be available as intended.”

    Now, the LWCF is facing expiration on September 30, 2015, leaving only 30 days of Congressional work periods for action to take place.

    What’s more, Congress will not consider reauthorization of the LWCF as a stand-alone bill, only as an amendment to a more substantial piece of legislature.  In February 2015, Republican Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina introduced Senate Bill 338, which is getting the most attention as a reauthorization vehicle.  The bill requires a minimum of 1.5 percent of the annual funding amount allocated to the LWCF to be used for improving public access to federally-owned public lands, while calling for the original LWCF Act of 1965 to be amended, making the fund a permanent program.

    The corresponding bill in the House, House Bill 1814, currently has over 100 co-sponsors—primarily Democrats.  Republican Representatives are hearing grievances from the dogged, right-wing, Cliven Bundy-type constituents who believe that the federal government has overgrown its borders and acquired too much land already.  Considering the Republican majority in both houses of Congress, there is still a lot of work to be done to ensure the reauthorization of the LWCF which is the sportsman’s most valuable asset. 

    From the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area in Virginia, to Rocky Mountain National Park and the Grand Canyon in the West, the LWCF is responsible for the protection of the special places that outdoor recreationists form strong ties with.  Economically, those lands support 9.4 million jobs and $730 billion of revenue annually nationwide, according to the Outdoor Industry Association.  The beauty of the program is that the funds are acquired from offshore drilling fees, not taxpayer dollars.

    Reauthorizing the LWCF is truly a “bipartisan no-brainer.”  Contact your representatives to let them know your wishes, and act fast.  Let’s preserve this conservation superpower while we still can.  

*Originally published in the Rural Virginian