New Congress May Reverse Decline in Land Investment
Over the past five years, the federal funding to protect natural areas at risk of development has declined by 72 percent. “Talk about shortsighted!” says The Wilderness Society’s Tom Gilbert. “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.”
The primary source of money to acquire at-risk places inside or close by national forests, parks, and other public lands is the Land and Water Conservation Fund. 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,” Gilbert points out. For this year, just 16 percent of that funding is going toward its intended purpose, and President Bush recently proposed that for next year it go down to six percent.
Another important source of conservation funds, the Forest Legacy program, has only $57.3 million to work with this year, and now the president is calling for $29 million for next year. The program’s funds are used mainly to help states protect private forestlands from development, primarily through purchase of conservation easements.
“Fortunately, in November the voters retired some of the lawmakers who were crippling these funds, so despite the overall budget challenges, we see an opportunity to turn things around,” says Sarah Neimeyer, who directs our appropriations effort. For example, Congressman Charles Taylor (R-NC), a powerful subcommittee chairman who pressed for a moratorium on such appropriations, was defeated.
“We are counting on the new Congress to do better, enabling protection of places such as Stowe Mountain in Maine,” says Jeremy Sheaffer, director of our Maine campaigns. At stake are 3,600 acres adjoining Mahoosuc Notch, the most challenging section of the Appalachian Trail. “We would be preserving much of the remaining unprotected land in the Bear River Valley, including the flanks of 4,180-foot Old Speck, one of Maine’s highest peaks,” Sheaffer points out. “Another benefit would be access to the new 42-mile Grafton Loop Trail.” In addition, this parcel shelters headwater streams that feed the Bear and Sunday Rivers.
Another high priority is Montana’s Blackfoot Valley, famous for its fishing, hunting, and wilderness but now in jeopardy due to the quickening pace of development in the Northern Rockies. “There are opportunities in almost every state,” observes Rebecca Knuffke, who works closely with dozens of allies, such as Trout Unlimited and the Trust for Public Land. “We are determined to fend off development threats facing the Cascade Mountains in Washington, the Chattahoochee River watershed in Georgia, and many other special places.”
The most critical decisions on how much money to appropriate for such investments are made in the spring and early summer. “We encourage citizens to contact their senators and representatives to urge full funding of the Land and Water Conservation Fund and $80 million for Forest Legacy,” says Neimeyer.
