LWCF and Forest Legacy
Stop “Drilling for Highways” – Ask Your Rep to Sign a Letter by Monday
House leaders have floated proposals to divert offshore oil royalties from LWCF to instead fund transportation infrastructure. Please urge your Rep. to sign a Dear Colleague letter urging that LWCF and its revenue stream of OCS funds be protected during any future transportation bill discussions. The deadline to sign-on is 3:00 pm on Tuesday, December 20, so please call your Rep today and urge them to sign-on by contacting Jesse Young in Rep. Chris Murphy’s office. (Switchboard: 202-224-3121)
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 has grown substantially in the first two years under President Obama -- to $172 million in Fiscal Year 2009 and $318 million in Fiscal Year 2010 (not including Forest Legacy and other programs that bring the total to $432m). Overall funding for LWCF and related programs was cut to $301 m in the Fiscal Year 2011 Continuing Resolution, a cut of $149 m or 33% below FY 10. See lists of specific projects funded:
The appropriations process for Fiscal Year 2012 started out with a bang -- President Obama sought to fully fund LWCF at $900 million overall! Unfortunately, House appropriators provided less than 10% of that amount, but subsequent amendments demonstrated our support and increased their initial proposal by 50%. Amazingly, most funding was restored in a year-end funding package that provides $323 million for LWCF -- an increase over FY 11!
Thanks to your hard work, this year's LWCF/Forest Legacy letters were signed by a record 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 m, a 31% cut from last year.
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