LWCF and Forest Legacy
Victory -- Senate Passes Dedicated LWCF & Gulf Coast Funding!
By a surprisingly strong vote of 76 to 22, the Senate approved an amendment (#1822) to the Senate Transportation Bill to provide two years of dedicated Land & Water Conservation Fund funding ($700 million/year) and re-authorize the program through 2022. This amendment also includes the RESTORE the Gulf Coast Act, directing much of the Clean Water Act penalties associated with the 2010 Gulf spill back to the region for long term ecological restoration and economic development.
This isn’t a done deal yet (the House & Senate need to agree) so we still need to push for LWCF and Forest Legacy appropriations in Fiscal Year 2013. The House letter got a record 152 signatures and the Senate letter had 44 signers.
Land and Water Conservation Fund
The federal Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) was set up in 1965 to take a portion of the revenues from offshore oil and gas leasing and reinvest them in onshore conservation. It has been an important source of funding for federal and state acquisitions of land and easements--often purchasing land acquired by land trusts. See our LWCF transition recommendation and a factsheet from the LWCF Coalition.
Though LWCF receives $900 million a year from energy royalties, Congressional appropriators have consistently withheld much of that funding, shortchanging the program by some $17 billion over the past 46 years! Fortunately, funding grew substantially in the first two years under President Obama -- reaching a peak of $432 million in Fiscal Year 2010. Funding was cut to $301 million in the Fiscal Year 2011 Continuing Resolution, but our coalition efforts managed a modest improvement to $323 million in Fiscal year 2012, after several successful amendments increased the initial house proposal by 50%. See lists of specific projects funded:
The appropriations process for Fiscal Year 2013 started out with a bang -- President Obama sought a one third increase to $450 million in his budget request. Letters supporting this request got 152 signatures in the House and 44 signatures in the Senate.
Last year's LWCF/Forest Legacy letters were signed by 150 Representatives and 39 Senators!
There's also a move underway to fully dedicate funding for LWCF at the authorized level of $900 million, and your Senators can help by co-sponsoring S. 1265. Please visit the LWCF Coalition website for more information.
The Alliance has two goals regarding dedicated funding for LWCF: to see the money going into the fund actually dedicated to conservation, and to allow the fund to be used to support conservation by land trusts. Working through land trusts could allow LWCF to leverage landowner donations and other funding sources to achieve far more conservation. We believe the America's Great Outdoors Initiative may be the best forum for promoting the idea of allowing enough flexibility in the LWCF so that, like the Great Outdoors Colorado program created when Ken Salazar was Secretary of Natural Resources of that state, it can be used to help land trusts with purchases of land and easements. Learn more about the America's Great Outdoors initiative.
For the latest news on federal appropriations and dedicated funding legislation, please subscribe to our Land Trust Advocates alerts.
Forest Legacy Program
The Forest Legacy program is a voluntary program of the USDA Forest Service providing grants to states for the purchase of conservation easements and fee acquisition of environmentally-sensitive or threatened forest lands. The United States loses more than half a million acres of privately-owned timberland to development each year, resulting in a loss of livelihood for some, a loss of places to explore nature for many, a loss of environmental quality for us all. The Forest Legacy Program provides an alternative to selling timberland for development: assistance in private, voluntary conservation. 1,145,586 acres have been protected as of February 2006. View a list of projects by fiscal year.
The Forest Legacy Program provides grants to enrolled states to purchase conservation easements or fee acquisition on environmentally important forest lands that are threatened with conversion to non-forest uses. Land trusts can provide invaluable assistance with their experience bringing landowners and projects to the table, negotiating and monitoring easements, and can participate in many other ways.
In Fiscal Year 2010, Forest Legacy funding grew by 60% to $79.5 million. The Fiscal Year 2011 Continuing Resolution then cut funding to $53 million, a number which held steady in the Fiscal Year 2012 bill. President Obama has requested $60 million in Fiscal Year 2013.
See a chart of recent LWCF and Forest Legacy funding levels.
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