Don't Let the Land and Water Conservation Fund Expire

SterlingForest
The Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) is set to expire on September 30. Tell Congress and the President to do the right thing for your public lands - don't let our most important conservation and outdoor recreation program expire! Sign and share this petition before time runs out.

Created by Congress in 1965, the LWCF was a bipartisan commitment to safeguard natural areas, water resources and our cultural heritage, and to provide recreation opportunities to all Americans. National parks like Rocky Mountain, the Grand Canyon, and the Great Smoky Mountains, as well as national wildlife refuges, national forests, rivers and lakes, community parks, trails, and ball fields in all 50 states were set aside for Americans to enjoy thanks to federal funds from the LWCF.

The LWCF has helped protect some of New York’s most treasured places. New York has received approximately $319 million over the past five decades, protecting places such as Sterling Forest State Park (pictured), Fire Island and Teddy Roosevelt's birthplace. Learn more about what the LWCF has done for New York.

The idea behind LWCF is to take revenues from the depletion of offshore oil and gas resources to support the protection of land and water resources. Every year, $900 million in royalties paid by energy companies drilling for oil and gas on the Outer Continental Shelf are put into this fund. The money is intended to create and protect national parks, areas around rivers and lakes, national forests, and national wildlife refuges from development, and to provide matching grants for state and local parks and recreation projects.

Yet, nearly every year, Congress breaks its own promise to the American people and diverts much of this funding to uses other than conserving our most important lands and waters.

As a result, there is a substantial backlog of federal land acquisition needs estimated at more than $30 billion—including places vulnerable to development such as the Florida Everglades, Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, Civil War battlefields in Virginia and other precious places around the country. State governments also report needing $27 billion in LWCF funds for eligible local parks and recreation projects.

Sign and share the petition and tell our national leaders to renew American's most important conservation program - the LWCF.



Category: