The Land and Water Conservation Fund Needs Your Help Now!
Call, Write or Email Your Senator to Support the Fund!
What’s “The Fund?” and What Does it Have to do With Kayaking?
The Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) was created way back in 1964 to secure more open space and enhance outdoor recreation for Americans.
There are two parts to the Fund, the federal part and the state part.
The federal part helps federal agencies like the National Park Service, USFS and BLM acquire land to be part of their systems (many of which offer prime outdoor recreation opportunities).
The state part helps state government develop their outdoor recreation and open space resources (like a trail to the put-in of your favorite local run). The put-in on the Lower Youghiogheny at Ohiopyle was funded with this money.
Why Does the Fund Need Support from YOU?
Though the Fund automatically gets hundreds of millions of dollars in royalty fees that energy companies pay to the government, the money only goes to open space and outdoor recreation if the President asks for it and Congress decides to spend it!
This year, the President asked for an outrageous amount of money for the Fund’s state program -- $0.
Luckily, a couple of Senators (Ken Salazar, a Democrat from Colorado and Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine) are coming to the rescue by trying to rally the Senate to change the $0 to $125 million.
Senators listen to each other, but they listen the most to the people that put them in
office – people like YOU.