Landmark Legislation Puts Funding for LWCF and Federal Trail Maintenance Backlog in Reach

Landmark legislation for federal public lands has been introduced in the Senate.

This winter, WTA was in Washington, D.C. talking to our congressional delegation about the importance of public lands and trails. We are delighted to report that two of the bills we had been working for have now been packaged together as the Great American Outdoors Act (S. 3422). The act would fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) at $900 million per year and provide $1.9 billion per year for five years into the “National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund.”

The Pacific Crest Trail is helped by LWCF, which would receive full funding in the newly introduced Great American Outdoors Act. Photo by trip reporter vaguswonder.

• WHAT IS LWCF? 
• Since 1964, LWCF has been our nation’s most successful conservation and recreation program, supporting local economies, providing infrastructure for public health, tourism and recreation, and increasing access to the outdoors in all states and territories and nearly every county in the United States.
  
  In Washington, it has helped fund iconic places like:
  
  
• - Mount Rainier and Olympic national parks
• 
  - The Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail
• 
  - The Columbia River Gorge
• 
  - Ebey's Landing National Historic Reserve
• 
  Learn more about the important work of LWCF here!

WTA and the outdoor community have been working hard and speaking up for this funding for years, and to see both pieces of legislation come together simultaneously is incredibly exciting.

The legislation brings together full, permanent funding for LWCF S. 1081 (116) and addresses a maintenance backlog — legislation formerly introduced as the Restore Our Parks Act S. 500 (116) — for the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Indian Education and the U.S. Forest Service.

For years, WTA has strongly advocated for funding for the Forest Service to be included in the Restore Our Parks Act due to the significant maintenance backlog in national forests.

The Great American Outdoors Act has strong bipartisan support in the Senate as well as co-sponsorship by both of Washington’s U.S. Senators, Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray. Sen. Cantwell has worked tirelessly to support LWCF by leading the effort for both its permanent reauthorization and the permanent funding.

WTA staff joined with Senator Maria Cantwell for a rally for permanent LWCF reauthorization in 2019. 

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