In 1964, Congress created the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). It was a simple idea: use federal revenues from offshore oil and gas receipts for the purchase of land and water to support creation of national and community parks, forests, wildlife refuges, and open spaces to guarantee outdoor recreation opportunities and a clean environment.

LWCF has been a success story, responsible for nearly seven million acres of parkland, water resources, and open space, and 37,000 state and local park and recreation projects. But Congress has diverted a significant percentage of the fund for purposes other than conservation. The battle to give LWCF permanent, guaranteed funding continues today. Today, LWCF funds are appropriated through the Land Conservation, Preservation, and Infrastructure Improvement (LCPII) fund.

Meanwhile, we work to ensure that yearly proposals for specific LWCF projects win support in the agencies and approval in Congress. Our focus is to make sure that priority lists of projects developed by each of the four federal land management agencies includes critical areas at risk available for purchase, like inholdings in National Wildlife Refuges in Maine and Tennessee, or a conservation easement along Indian Creek, a tributary to the Salmon River in Idaho.

LWCF is composed of two programs:

• A federal program that provides funding to purchase areas for conservation and recreation within areas managed by the Forest Service, Fish & Wildlife Service, National Park Service, and Bureau of Land Management; and
• A state program that provides funding to state Parks/Natural Resource Departments and local communities for planning, development, and acquisition of land and water areas, and for the construction of recreation facilities.

For More Information

• LWCF factsheet
• Americans Want More Open Spaces (poll; PDF)