Investments in Land Protection on Upswing
Forests, streams, mountains, meadows, and other natural areas across the country will be protected thanks to the first increase in Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) appropriations in three years. “Every minute of every day, our country loses four more acres to development,” notes Rebecca Knuffke of The Wilderness Society, who works closely with dozens of allies, such as Trout Unlimited and the Trust for Public Land. “So this is a great shot in the arm for conservation.”
LWCF is the primary source of money to acquire at-risk places inside or close by national forests, parks, and other public lands. It was created to save areas with high natural or recreational value, and each year the fund draws $900 million from offshore oil and gas royalties. “But Congress has failed to make much of that money available over the past decade,” Knuffke points out. Last year, just 16 percent of that funding went toward its intended purpose, and President Bush had proposed reducing that figure to a mere six percent. Since its inception, LWCF has made it possible to protect more than five million acres.
Some of the new funding will enable land acquisition in the watershed of the Connecticut River, which runs through four New England states and forms the spine of the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge. “At stake is habitat vital to loons, wood ducks, and many other waterfowl, and sprawl will chew up this acreage if we don’t move quickly to save it,” says The Wilderness Society’s Leanne Klyza Linck, based in Vermont.
LWCF appropriations for the coming year also will preserve acreage facing possible development at various Civil War battlefields, Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Virginia, and elsewhere.
Another important source of conservation funds is the Forest Legacy program, used mainly to help states protect private forestlands from development, generally through purchase of conservation easements. “The latest appropriations will make it possible to protect threatened tracts at Stowe Mountain in Maine, Sparta Mountain South in New Jersey, Big Forks in Tennessee, and at a number of other places,” says Tom Gilbert, who oversees our acquisition funding work in the East. “We are urging Congress to appropriate at least $62.8 million this year, the amount approved by the House.” The Senate Appropriations Committee proposed $54.6 million.
The exact amounts to be appropriated for Forest Legacy and LWCF were not known at press time because the legislation had yet to clear Congress and the president had warned that he would veto it. “Now that the decline appears to have been reversed,” says Gilbert, “we are determined to continue moving back toward full funding. Investing in forests, meadows, and other natural areas will pay dividends forever in the form of clean air and water, flood control, healthy fisheries and wildlife populations, and the recharging of human batteries run down by the pace of modern life. Our members can help by delivering this message to those who represent them in Congress.”
