The Land and Water Conservation Fund, one of Congress’ most visionary acts, is set to expire. It continues to enjoy bipartisan support. It is time for action, not only to reauthorize LWCF, but to restore its original intent.
Congress created the LWCF in 1965 as a bipartisan commitment to safeguard natural areas, water resources and our cultural heritage, and to provide outdoor recreation opportunities. The act will expire this September, unless reauthorization occurs.
As Congress evaluates LWCF’s reauthorization, a key concern to state parks systems and local governments is the distribution breakdown to address federal and stateside parks and recreation needs. Originally, 60 percent of the funds in the LWCF program were designated for state and local projects. The remaining 40 percent was for federal agency land acquisition. In 1976, LWCF was changed to remove the 60 percent guarantee of funding for the LWCF State Assistance Program.
Since fiscal year 2004, the state assistance portion of the program has averaged only 12.5 percent of the total appropriation, while the federal land acquisition and other federal programs have received 87.5 percent of the funding. The LWCF State Assistance funds are distinguished and made more effective by an equitable distribution formula to each state and the requirement of a local dollar-for-dollar match.
The LWCF grants to states support the acquisition and development of state and local parks and recreational facilities. The State Assistance Program, which was founded as a core priority program at the time of the LWCF’s creation, has been especially neglected over the last two decades. It has been the victim of two major changes to the LWCF Act to not only change the mandatory allocations, but also add new and loosely defined “related purposes” as eligible uses for LWCF dollars.
These “related purposes,” or new programs, were added to the law in 1997. The additional accounts have effectively squeezed the State Allocation down to less than 13 percent of total LWCF appropriations since 1998.
The national priorities publicly identified in 1965, 1980 and more recently in 2010 continued to verify needs within local communities and the states for additional outdoor recreation areas and facilities. The LWCF Act was designed to create close-to-home recreation opportunities. While not every community has a national park and their associated benefits, every community has local outdoor recreation resources. America’s state parks provided wonderful outdoor recreation experiences and unique historical, scientific and environmental education opportunities to the 739,615,816 people who visited them last year.
People of all ethnic groups, income levels, ages and abilities use state and local parks on a daily basis. Those visitors are drawn to many of the natural resources and recreational opportunities made possible through the partnership created by the LWCF State Assistance Program.
Local parks departments have also notably benefitted from LWCF. Over two-thirds of LWCF State Assistance projects have been awarded to more than 10,800 municipal, county and territorial public agencies, including Native American communities.
The primary source of income to the fund is fees paid to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement by companies drilling offshore for oil and gas. The original concept was to use funds generated by the depletion of natural resources to permanently protect other important natural resources. Congress regularly diverts most of the funds from this source to other purposes, however.
LWCF has been a key reason for the vast diversity of outdoor recreation available in numerous state and local parks, which owe their very existence to the stateside fund. Furthermore, the annual economic impact of state parks exceeds $20 billion to local and state economies. Simply put, state and local parks provide important contributions to the nation’s environment, heritage, health and economy. State agencies are strategically positioned to ensure good planning, budgeting and accountability for LWCF state assistance projects because they are immersed within the states and their local communities.
The U.S. population was 194 million in 1965. The U.S. Census agency projects the population to reach 321 million this year — with fully four-out-of-five Americans living in our larger metropolitan regions. State and local outdoor recreation opportunities must grow to keep pace with a growing population and shifting demographics.
Reauthorization of LWCF, with balanced and equitable funding of the State Assistance allocation, will have great impact today and for future generations in meeting the purposes of the original act and the needs of a growing populace.
Lewis Ledford is executive director of the National Association of State Parks Directors and is the former director of the North Carolina state parks system and state administrator of LWCF. Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions. Lewis Ledford Letter
