Reauthorize LWCF: Fighting for healthy communities and healthy economies

Returning to Colorado after three years working in Canada, my old community truly felt like home again with its bountiful opportunities to hike, bike, boat, fish and enjoy the great outdoors. The trails I had run on, the parks I had taken my children to and the natural landscapes are still there, accessible and as invigorating as always.

These lands and waters do not stay this way on their own. It takes dedicated and sustained funding to make sure that our local and national parks, forests and urban green spaces are well-maintained, clean and safe.

{mosads}However, this may not be the case if one of the most successful investment programs, the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), expires on September 30th. As Congress returns to Washington, we need to reach out to our elected officials and let them know these places are special to us and that LWCF must be reauthorized and fully funded to ensure these places don’t disappear.

As I return to work at Outdoor Industry Association (OIA), now as executive director, it is incredible to me that we are still on the verge of losing this program due to inaction in Congress. We repeatedly have to fight for a program that doesn’t require more taxes, and not only supports state and local communities, but is the backbone to outdoor recreation businesses that make up the $646 billion outdoor economy and support 6.1 million jobs.

An overwhelmingly bipartisan majority in Congress first passed LWCF in 1965. The program uses revenue from offshore oil and gas leases to invest in outdoor places, from national parks to neighborhood parks. Presidents Kennedy and Johnson and the 89^th Congress had the foresight to understand that when we extract a resource from the Earth, we should invest in conserving something permanent—our public land and water—for future generations.

Despite only being fully funded once in its fifty-year history, LWCF has contributed more than $17 billion in grants across communities in every county in the United States. Eighty-two percent of the projects LWCF has funded have gone toward recreation.

For example, in President Obama’s proposed 2016 budget, more than $4 million would be appropriated to projects that impact regions in Utah, represented by Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, like the Bear River Watershed and the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. These important projects and many others won’t happen if LWCF expires before September 30th.

There are similar stories from Alaska, California, Colorado, Texas and other states across the country. Not only is renewal of LWCF important in each of these places today and far into the future, but it also helps support and promote the massive economic contribution that outdoor recreation makes in every state, without raising taxes or adding to the federal deficit.

We cannot stand idly by and hope that Congress will renew LWCF before September 30. We need to take action today to ensure that our parks, trails and waters are protected so that one day my children, their children and yours can enjoy the outdoors, the same way we have for generations.

Outdoor industry business leaders have been reaching out to their representatives to let them know how crucial this legislation is to the success of their companies. I am meeting with officials in Washington, D.C., to let them know why LWCF reauthorization is important to me. I ask you to call and write your congressional representatives and tell them they need to support LWCF and all the benefits it brings to you, your community and the economy. 

Roberts is executive director of Outdoor Industry Association (OIA).