No Love for Public Lands in the President’s Budget

The Alpine Lakes Wilderness in Washington State, which has received funding from LWCF for trail maintenance and conservation work along two lakes. 

The President released his budget this week, and it includes big cuts for public lands and parks.

We’ve talked about the President’s budget before. It is a political document that is a statement about the administration’s priorities, rather than an actual piece of legislation. The President doesn’t actually set the budget for the government (that’s the job of Congress…when they decide to do it), but his input does show his priorities.

The new budget proposes enormous cuts to land management agencies and pretty much eliminates the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). You might remember that the LWCF has long been considered the country’s best conservation program. It’s popular with both political parties, and uses non taxpayer dollars to create new parks, trails, put ins, and recreation access points.

It’s been important to outdoor recreationists across the country. To name just a few examples, LWCF funding has been used to protect climbing at Palisades Park in Alabama, Bozeman Pass in Montana, the Pacific Crest Trail, and recreation at Sky Meadows State Park in Virginia.

There’s not much to do just yet, but when it comes time for Congress to sit down and decide what dollars go where, we will let you know when it's time to say a thing about your priorities.