In recent weeks, New Hampshire’s Congressional Delegation – Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Kelly Ayotte, and Reps. Carol Shea-Porter and Ann McLane Kuster -- have gone on the record in support of the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF).
All four signed “dear colleague” letters that urge robust funding for LWCF in the next federal fiscal year (FY14), which begins this fall. Senator Shaheen is also co-sponsoring legislation (S.338) that would re-authorize LWCF (its current authority runs out in 2015) and mandate full funding of $900 million per year. Established by congress in 1965, LWCF is the principal source of monies for land acquisition by the four federal land resource agencies — the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the U.S. Forest Service.
LWCF funding has helped conserve iconic federal lands in New Hampshire like the White Mountain National Forest, and the Silvio O. Conte and Umbagog National Fish & Wildlife Refuges. LWCF also funds the U.S. Forest Service’s Forest Legacy program, which has protected over 200,000 acres of private forestland in New Hampshire.
LWCF state grants have contributed to the acquisition and development of many state parks and forests, as well as municipal parks, ball fields and other recreational lands throughout New Hampshire. The primary source of income to LWCF is fees paid by companies drilling offshore for oil and gas. The fund is authorized at $900 million annually, but has only been fully funded twice during the program's nearly five decades of existence. Total LWCF funding in the current federal fiscal year (FY13) is $306 million.
To learn more about LWCF and other federal funding issues, contact Will Abbott at wabbott@forestsociety.org, or (603) 224-9945.