(Image source from: Land and Water Conservation Fund had widespread bipartisan support for 50 years})

The Land and Water Conservation Fund may be little known outside of Washington, D.C., but many people have enjoyed its fruits. It has provided about $17 billion for everything from the expansion of iconic national parks and forests to more than 40,000 local recreation projects across the country.

Arizona has received about $900,000 in 2014 and has received more than $60 million since 1965. California has received $3.7 million in 2014 and has received about $300 million since 1965. All of that has been without tax, because most of the money comes from royalties on offshore oil and gas leasing.

Still, Congress failed to meet the Sept. 30 deadline for reauthorizing the fund. The blame is on Rep. Rob Bishop, a Utah Republican who is the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, which has jurisdiction over the fund.

“Both Republicans and Democrats support the original intent of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, but the program has drifted far from the original intent,” Bishop said. “Under my chairmanship, the status quo will be challenged. Any reauthorization of LWCF will, among other improvements, prioritize local communities as originally intended.”

Amy Lindholm, director of the LWCF campaign for the Wilderness Society, said, “The fact is that you have broken this tie that has existed for 50 years,” she said. And she believes that critics of the fund have something more than reform in mind. “He just really wants to kill the program,” she said of Bishop.

By Premji