The budget was passed, but as of press time Wednesday, it was not known whether the Land and Water Conservation Fund had been reauthorized.
“It is vital that we permanently reauthorize #LWCF and do not allow it to lapse,” Sen. Steve Daines R-Mont., tweeted Wednesday. The LWCF Twitter feed was filled with similar sentiments, along with hashtags like #Outdoors4All and #SaveLWCF.
The LWCF provides federal grants to entities like national parks, forests and wildlife refuges. According to its website, the fund has supported more than 41,000 state and local park projects in every state.
With this money, areas like the Hoosier National Forest improve their recreational facilities and consolidate their scattered land. The fund comes from fees companies pay to drill offshore for gas and oil.
Without the LWCF, opportunities to acquire more land can be lost. Mike Chaveas, forest supervisor, said consolidating the forest, or acquiring the private land dividing up the forest, is important because it lowers costs and improves accessibility for people who want to get outside.
Because the forest is “very much scattered across Indiana,” Chaveas said there are a lot of boundary lines between public and private land that have to be looked after. That costs money.
“We wouldn’t have any mechanism anymore to acquire land,” Chaveas said, referring to what would happen if LWFC funding was not approved. “We wouldn’t be able to close in the gaps of private land or to improve access for recreationists who want to get to the forest. All of that would go away.”
The LWCF is practically the only funding source the Hoosier National Forest has for land acquisition, Chaveas said.
“We all love having nice places to go hiking,” said Katrina Folsom, the communications director at Sycamore Land Trust. “We all need clean water and air. That source of federal funding is so central for conservation throughout this state.”
She said that though the disappearance of the fund could hinder progress on conservation projects throughout Indiana, the forests would not disappear.
“We use that fund to try to fill in those gaps in the land base,” he said. “It really helps us to be more efficient in how we use our other money.”
About 70 percent of operating costs for Indiana’s state parks, lakes and forests are covered by a “user pays” system. Visitors to state parks pay fees to enter the park, to rent cabins and boats and for activities like camping and swimming.
In order to receive money from the LWCF, the Hoosier National Forest writes proposals for specific projects it plans to complete if provided with funding.
When the Hoosier National Forest doesn’t have extra money to spend on adjacent pieces of land for sale by private land owners, nonprofits like Sycamore Land Trust sometimes help out..
Folsom said the trust will sometimes buy that land and maintain it for the forest, until the forest can apply for funding to buy the land.
The disappearance of LWCF would mean the property won’t be added to the forest. This is an example of a holdup, Folsom said. That doesn’t mean the land won’t eventually join the Hoosier National Forest.
It’s possible, Chaveas said, for Congress to go back and reauthorize the fund.
“But until that happens, this opportunity will go away for us,” he said.
Chaveas and Folsom agreed the fund is important for both conservation efforts and people.
“The Land and Water Conservation Fund is one of those things that many people benefit from but most don’t know about,” Folsom said.
