Don’t allow conservation fund to go dry
Like many Americans, I started exploring public lands as a child, on a family camping trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains. I’ll never forget the awe I felt as a small child among the majestic and seemingly neverending field of mountain peaks. The wonder I felt with every new, beautiful vista around each winding turn as my father drove us through the fog and pines. The soundtrack of that trip, peppered with the contented sighs of my siblings and me as we crawled deep into our sleeping bags with bellies full of hot dogs and warm cider.
Growing up, I knew I’d want the same wondrous experiences for my children and grandchildren, and I’m willing to fight for that. Which is why, when I heard that President Donald Trump’s proposed budget threatens to pull all funding from the Land and Water Conservation Fund, I got on a plane and flew to Washington, D.C.
There, I and other advocates spoke to staff members from both South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham’s office and New York Democratic Congresswoman Nita Lowey’s office. We were assured that both are fierce supporters of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. In a divided Congress, both sides of the aisle support money for the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
That’s because the fund was a bipartisan initiative created by Congress in 1964. It uses royalties from oil and gas companies drilling offshore and invests money to protect the land and water of our nation. Since its founding, it has helped maintain everything from baseball fields to battlefields in all 50 states. In New Mexico alone, it has invested $312 million in public projects — all at no cost to taxpayers.
Last spring, Congress made the right move in permanently reauthorizing the fund, but it failed to permanently fund the longstanding program. Hearing this, I’m reminded of an old idiom, “Show me your budget and I’ll tell you your values.” It is time for Congress to show the American voters how much it values our public lands.
As a wildlife advocate, I see firsthand the impact people can have on the land, and how much the land can impact its people. I seek respite and understanding in New Mexico’s public spaces. Others seek healing and connection. We all seek the peace and joy that comes from the great outdoors.
As a veteran, military spouse and mother of an Air Force member, when I talk about how public lands affect our service members, I’m talking about my family, too. My daughter has been stationed and deployed across the globe during her 14 years of service, including duty stations here in America, where she can be found hiking and running the trails in national, state or city parks — all the types of places this fund has fought to build, maintain and protect for the past 50 years. We cannot fail her and future generations by letting these public spaces fall into disrepair or disappear completely.
Join me in safeguarding these public spaces and the memories, connections and healing done on them every day by contacting U.S. Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich and letting them know that you support the immediate full and permanent funding of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Together, we can ensure camping memories for generations of children to come.