The United
States’ Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) is a Federal program that was
established in 1965 by Congress to provide funds and matching grants to
federal, state and local governments for the acquisition and protection of land
and water. The fund emphasizes the recreation and protection of national
natural treasures in the form of parks and protected forest and wildlife areas,
and uses oil and gas royalties to pay for these projects. In July, Montana celebrated the addition of
8,200 acres, known as Tenderfoot Creek, to the Lewis and Clark National Forest.
Most of the cost, which amounted to $10.7 million, was paid for by the
LWCF.
Earlier this week, however, the 50-year-old
fund was allowed to expire completely. This is a tragedy enacted by Congress,
who knew of the deadline long and advance, and failed to take action to
reauthorize it, despite the fund’s broad bipartisan support.
What does this mean for our country?
Economically, offshore oil and gas producers will no longer be paying to support
the fund. While this is beneficial to our energy producers, this will only make
reinstating the fund more difficult. In terms of environmental ethics, the
disbandment of the LWCF is a sad event for anyone who cares about our natural
parks.
There is hope for the future. Other
conservation organizations are picking up their efforts to get the LWCF
reauthorized as quickly as possible. There are current plans in action to
attach the fund to another pieces of legislation to encourage its
reinstatement. Senators Jon Tester and Steve Daines have cosponsored a bill
that goes further than the fund did in the past, locking in a full
appropriation of $900 million so that the bill will no longer have funding
problems.
Hopefully we can remedy this
mismanagement by congress. Luckily,
there are politicians working to reinstate the fund permanently, so that this
issue will never repeat itself. LWCF’s mission is to preserve the natural
resources that are significant to the American landscape. The permanent dissolution
of the LWCF would be a failure on our part to the many Americans who have
fought for the establishment and preservation of our parks that we enjoy so
much today.
I suspect that the root of this problem may have been lobbyists for the big oil and gas companies. It saves them a lot of money for a cause that has no impact on them, showing once again that big oil and gas producers do not care about the environment as a whole, rather they only care about the areas that are able to be mined and rigged.
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