News Room

The Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF)—authorized under law to receive $900 million a year from offshore oil leases—has been the primary vehicle for acquiring lands since 1978 to buffer the Appalachian Trail and its priceless resources from adverse development. Today, almost 99.5 percent of those lands have been purchased.

“Nearly 200,000 acres in 14 states have been acquired, providing a permanent right-of-way that accommodates more than three million annual visitors as well as a protective greenway bordering the trail that encompasses some of the finest natural, cultural, and scenic resources of the eastern United States,” noted ATC Executive Director David N. Startzell, who has been active in seeking LWCF support in Congress since 1978.

Congressional appropriations to the 44-year-old LWCF, however, have declined from $445 million in 2001 to $130 million last year. Over the course of the last for decades, more than $17 billion set aside for conservation has been diverted to other purposes, according to a report released today by the coalition.

”Over the past few years, even with the heroic efforts of some key players in Congress, funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) has been in a downward spiral,” said Alan Front, senior vice president of The Trust for Public Land (TPL). “We are delighted that the President’s budget proposal turns the LWCF around and points it back in the right direction.”

The coalition report, Conserving America’s Landscapes, urges Congress and the administration to fully fund the LWCF to acquire open space and create parks, forests, wildlife habitat, and recreation areas across the country. The recently released administration budget summary seeks full funding by 2014.

The LWCF program includes a state-grants component that supports parks at the state and local level, creating quality jobs and supporting the quality-of-life factors that can make the difference for communities seeking to attract employers and a strong work force. Forty-four states report at least 95 percent of the need for outdoor recreation facilities and parkland is presently unmet.

Funding is also needed for the Forest Legacy Program (FLP), administered by the USDA Forest Service, to help private landowners maintain working forests to provide multiple benefits to adjacent communities, including watershed protection, economic sustainability, wildlife habitat, and public recreation.

"In the Southern Appalachians, rapid population growth and land-use patterns are creating fragmentation of our forested land at an alarming rate—even, and especially, within Forest Service proclamation boundaries. Without urgent action, we stand to lose our hunting and fishing heritage and our ability to secure sufficient drinking water and outdoor recreation areas for future generations," said Jay Leutze of the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy, a key ATC partner in numerous projects in North Carolina and Tennessee.