Last week, members of Congress from the House and Senate gathered at the U.S. Capitol with conservationists and outdoor recreation leaders to launch a 100 day push to reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund (#SaveLWCF) before it expires.
The Land and Water Conservation Fund, supported by a small portion of revenues from offshore oil and gas royalties, has long been regarded as the nation’s most important program for supporting conservation and recreation. LWCF enables conservation of national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, Civil War battlefields, state and local parks and working lands. Established in 1968, the fund’s authorization is scheduled to expire on September 30, 2018 unless Congress acts.
The Land and Water Conservation Fund Coalition is working with leaders to organize the reauthorization campaign. Find out more about last week’s event and statements from a bipartisan group of members of Congress. And check out a news story from this week on how congressional efforts to save the Land and Water Conservation Fund are getting some attention.
Here in the Chesapeake watershed, the LWCF has supported a wide range of conservation projects, including at Harper’s Ferry National Historical Park, Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park, Gettysburg National Military Park and many more. Efforts by the Chesapeake Conservation Partnership led to a significant increase in LWCF funding for the watershed, bringing in over $27 million between 2015 and 2018.
