New Congress Has Opportunity to Restore Conservation Funding
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 6, 2007
State Conservation Needs Grow as Development Pressures Intensify
WASHINGTON—The Administration’s proposed federal budget for Fiscal Year 2008, released Feb. 5, deeply cuts funding for land conservation programs and further threatens this country’s decades-long commitment to protecting public lands. Conservation funding levels stand in stark contrast to several recent U.S. Forest Service reports documenting enormous development pressures on rural lands and states’ clear requests for more federal help.
The Forest Legacy Program has been an effective tool to assist states in conserving and maintaining private forests threatened by development through purchase of development rights or public acquisition. For FY 2008, 41 states requested a total of $192 million in Forest Legacy funding for 82 forest conservation projects around the nation.
Despite this enormous need, the Administration’s FY 2008 budget proposed only $29 million for 14 Forest Legacy projects, leaving scores of special places such as Brushwood Community Forest in Vermont and Sparta Mountain South in the New Jersey Highlands at risk of development. That represents a cut of more than 50% from the president’s request last year ($61.5 million) and would only meet 15% of states’ funding requests.
“The Administration has been a strong supporter of the Forest Legacy Program in the past,” said Jad Daley, Coordinator of the Eastern Forest Partnership, a coalition of fourteen groups working to conserve Eastern Forests. “It is disappointing that they are now proposing a severe cut to the program, especially in light of several recent U.S. Forest Service reports documenting significant threats to the nation’s private forestlands.”
A recent U.S. Forest Service report, “Forests on the Edge,” warned that over 40 million acres of private forests, primarily in the East, are likely to be developed by 2030, resulting in significant impacts to water quality, wildlife populations, timber production, scenic quality and recreational opportunities. View this report (PDF) >>
Despite the president’s earlier pledges to “fully fund” the highly popular and effective Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), the budget released today further accelerates a trend of deep cuts to the program. In FY 2006, the president requested only $131 million. For FY 2007, the Administration reduced that by more than 35 percent, to approximately $84 million. For FY 2008, the downward trend continues with a request of only $57.8 million. LWCF is authorized by Congress to receive $900 million annually.
“Adequate conservation funding is not a luxury, it’s a necessity,” said Julie Wormser, Director of Conservation Policy with the Appalachian Mountain Club. “This Congress has the opportunity to make this issue a priority by restoring full funding to LWCF over the next several years.”
The Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) is the nation’s primary federal source of money to conserve land. Each year the fund is authorized by Congress to receive $900 million in royalties from offshore oil and gas drilling and to reinvest those funds to create and improve parks, to expand recreational opportunities and to protect America’s national forests, parks and wildlife refuges.
“There are enormous needs for LWCF funds to add critical lands to national forests in the rapidly growing Southeast,” said Mark Shelly, Executive Director of the Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition. “U.S. Forest Service staff in the region requested over $23 million to acquire over 10,000 acres throughout the Southeast. These lands may be lost forever unless Congress significantly increases LWCF funding.”
“The President’s budget proposal flies in the face of requests from the states and their own federal agencies, and ignores Americans’ wishes to preserve our best places for future generations,” said Tom Gilbert, Director of Eastern Forest Conservation with The Wilderness Society. “We are counting on the new Congress to do better and to protect dozens of special places that could otherwise be turned into strip-malls or subdivisions.”
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