WASHINGTON, DC (June 29, 2006) -- Today the Senate Appropriations Committee voted to substantially increase funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, adding back well over $100 million to the levels passed by the House last month. The funding includes $78 million* for LWCF Federal land acquisition (only $26.8 million in the House bill), $30 million* for LWCF State Assistance (zeroed-out by the House), and $50 million* for Forest Legacy (only $9.3 million in the House bill).

“This administration and Congress have made budgeting choices that have emptied the coffers and shortchanged important programs for preserving critically endangered open spaces,” said Sarah Neimeyer, director of budget and appropriations for The Wilderness Society. “We’re happy to have some funding for essential conservation projects, but it’s a fraction of the need.”

Although the Senate increased funding for the vital Forest Legacy program to $55 million, six times the level approved by the House, it still falls short of the President’s budget request of $61.5 million. The Forest Legacy program has been an effective tool used to assist states in conserving threatened private forestlands through purchase of lands or development rights from willing landowners. Participating states submitted project requests for Forest Legacy funding totaling over $200 million this year.

“The Senate had the wisdom to restore conservation funding close to or slightly exceeding the President’s budget after the House cut it to the bone,” said Tom Gilbert director of Eastern Forest conservation for The Wilderness Society. “Still, the funding remains far below the needs expressed by the states and jeopardizes scores of critical efforts to preserve threatened forests and open spaces.”

Even projects deemed important by the president and included in his budget request were left stranded by both the House and Senate, including Whitehurst Forest in North Carolina and Lower Penobscot Forest in Maine.

“The failure to provide much greater funding for conservation is hard to explain,” added Neimeyer. “These are programs that Americans love. They benefit every state and the states vigorously support them. Treating them like a budgetary afterthought hurts us all.”

The Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) is the nation’s primary source of money to conserve land. Each year the fund is authorized by Congress to receive $900 million in royalties from offshore oil and gas drilling and to reinvest those funds to expand recreational opportunities and protect America’s national forests, parks and wildlife refuges.

Growing pressure from development sprawl and the sale of millions of acres of timber company lands threaten to change the face of the American landscape in just a few decades. A recent U.S. Forest Service report, “Forests on the Edge,” warned that over 40 million acres of private forests, primarily in the East, are likely to be developed by 2030, resulting in significant impacts to water quality, wildlife populations, timber production, scenic quality and recreational opportunities. (To view the report, see http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/pubs/pnw_gtr636.pdf)

*NOTE: These figures do not include funds for operations and management, which total $50 million for LWCF and $5 million for Forest Legacy.

Senate Interior Appropriations Committee: Federal LWCF