Big Week For Public Lands Protections

This week, two key congressional committees advanced some important priorities for the outdoor recreation community.

On the Senate side, the Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted to advance S. 1081, the Land and Water Conservation Fund Permanent Funding Act. The bill would ensure that every year, the full $900 million collected for conservation and recreation projects is available; under current law, Congress has to appropriate money out from the fund, and typically less than half of what is available for the projects that LWCF is intended to support.

Senate ENR also voted to this week to advance S. 500, the Restore our Parks Act (ROPA), which directs a portion of currently unallocated revenue from energy development on public lands and waters towards National Park Service deferred maintenance. We were particularly pleased to see Senators, including Sens. Heinrich and Stabenow, speak on the importance of broadening the scope of the bill to address the deferred maintenance needs of the U.S. Forest Service, which manages some of the most important lands for outdoor recreation.

On the House side, the Natural Resources Committee voted this week to advance a suite of new protective designations we’re enthusiastic about, including:

H.R. 2250, the Northwest California Wilderness, Recreation, and Working Forests Act;
H.R. 2199, the Central Coast Heritage Protection Act;
H.R. 2215, San Gabriel Mountains Foothills and Rivers Protection Act; and
H.R. 2546, the Colorado Wilderness Act.

The Colorado Wilderness Act is particularly meaningful for us because of recent work we’ve done with the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Dianna DeGette (D-CO) to improve the bill. When the bill first had a hearing this summer, we expressed reservations because of the proposal’s impacts on access to important mountain biking and climbing areas. Over the course of the summer and fall, we worked extensively with Rep. DeGette’s staff to ensure recreation and conservation goals moved forward harmoniously, and we’re happy to support the bill with these necessary changes. You can read more about these bills here.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been sharing a lot with you about the importance of building towards the public lands future we all want to see, with well-funded land management agencies and important areas protected for their recreation and conservation values. More of the sort of progress we saw this week is exactly what we have in mind. If you have a moment, please check out, sign, and share our Public Lands Pledge, and please also consider taking a moment to drop your congresscritters a line asking them to keep this momentum going!

You can drop your Reps. and Senators a line using the form below: