From PennEnvironment (http://www.pennenvironment.org):
As early as this week, the U.S. House of Representatives will be voting on a bill that will help preserve Pennsylvania’s greatest outdoor places as well as our great national parks, wildlife refuges, and more.
The Great American Outdoors Act (HR 1957) will support full and permanent funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), America’s best conservation and recreation program, and will provide funding in the short-term to address maintenance projects in public lands. LWCF funds projects that protect our public lands and waters across the country.1 It’s already passed the Senate; now we need to get it through the House.
Join PennEnvironment at https://pennenvironment.webaction.org/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=38773 in standing up for public lands. Call on your U.S. representative to support the Great American Outdoors Act and fully fund LWCF.
LWCF has funded conservation and recreation projects in every county in every state. From expanding Grand Teton National Park to building thousands of playgrounds and baseball fields, LWCF helps preserve and restore outdoor spaces of all sizes.2,3
Unfortunately, this program has been consistently undervalued and underfunded by Congress, which routinely fails to allocate full funding to the program.4 This means that public lands go unprotected, and opportunities to enhance existing parks are missed. The U.S. House of Representatives now has the opportunity to change that by also passing the Great American Outdoors Act.
Drive through any strip mall in any city and it’s clear that America has plenty of physical stuff. What we truly need is more nature in our lives. The Great American Outdoors Act will help us achieve that.
PennEnvironment and our national network have a long track record of winning key environmental victories. We’ve worked for years to protect public lands, successfully getting LWCF reauthorized last year, sending advocates to the halls of Congress to persuade legislators from both parties, and earlier this month, collecting more than 24,000 messages to senators from supporters like you.
And thanks to your support, we won in the Senate — the Great American Outdoors Act got through with overwhelming support. Now it’s in the hands of the House of Representatives — and it needs to hear from public lands supporters like you.
Take action to support LWCF today.
1. Rachel Frazin, “Senate advances conservation fund bill, House introduces companion,” The Hill, June 4, 2020.
2. “Land and Water Conservation Fund,” National Park Service, January 8, 2020.
3. Christine Peterson, “Feds buy Grand Tetons land from state for $46 million, ending concerns over development,” Casper Star Tribune, December 12, 2016.
4. Jesse Paul, “U.S. Senate passes measure to fully fund Land and Water Conservation Fund, tackle National Park maintenance,” The Colorado Sun, June 17, 2020.
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