Tell Congress to Fully Fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund

From PennEnvironment (http://www.pennenvironment.org):

We’re burning through our planet’s resources at an unsustainable rate.

A report released in August by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) examined the relationship between climate change and the way we use our land. Its conclusion: If we want to avert climate catastrophe, we need to conserve our land.¹

Right now, Congress has the opportunity to fully fund the best tool we have for acquiring and protecting the forests and lands needed to store carbon and gird against climate change: the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF).

Go to https://pennenvironment.webaction.org/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=34373 to tell Congress: It’s time to fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund, the best conservation tool we have.

For more than 50 years, LWCF has funded conservation projects in all 50 states, protecting 2.37 million acres of land.²

Each year, $900 million is supposed to go into LWCF for these vital conservation projects. The only problem? Congress isn’t required to fully fund it.

Only twice (in 1998 and 2001) has Congress given LWCF its full $900 million.^3,4 In recent years, the program has received about half of that.⁵ And the Trump administration’s latest budget proposal all but zeroes it out, and tries to pull back $23 million Congress has already set aside for it.⁶

Congress is currently considering a bipartisan bill that would make sure LWCF is fully funded — permanently. The Land and Water Conservation Fund Permanent Funding Act would create dedicated funding for the program, making sure Congress couldn’t divert its share of the budget to other projects.⁷

Tell your U.S. House representative: Pass the Land and Water Conservation Fund Permanent Funding Act.

If we’re serious about solving the global warming crisis, we need to do everything we can. That means ratcheting down our emissions from energy and transportation — and it means conserving our land. LWCF will help us do that.

1. “Climate Change and Land,” Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, last accessed September 3, 2019.
2. “Land and Water Conservation Fund,” U.S. Department of the Interior, last accessed September 3, 2019.
3. Sarah Vogelsong, “Trump, Congress make Land and Water Conservation Fund permanent,” Bay Journal, April 8, 2019.
4. “Land and Water Conservation Fund: Overview, Funding History, and Issues,” EveryCRSReport.com, last accessed September 6, 2019.
5. Marianne Goodland, “Trump signs bill reauthorizing conservation fund, but his budget has little money for it,” Colorado Politics, March 12, 2019.
6. Rob Chaney, “Trump signs lands bill but budget rejects money for Land and Water Conservation Fund,” Missoulian, March 12, 2019.
7. “H.R.3195 – Land and Water Conservation Fund Permanent Funding Act,” Congress.gov, last accessed September 3, 2019.