Parks have a $900M fund but Congress doesn’t fill it

Plan calls for permanent funding

WASHINGTON — Officials say they need $6 million in federal money to prevent pockets of land around Redwood National Park from being used for private interests.

The Everglades National

Park needs $2.5 million for the same purpose.

And on a more local level, communities need federal money to help create baseball fields and smaller parks.

There’s a fund for all that, and vulnerable House Repub- licans are feeling pressure to make sure that money keeps coming in — permanently.

Started in 1965, the fund that uses money from offshore oil drilling to protect and create national and local parks has to be renewed by the end of September, or the money will no longer be available.

The fund protects national parks by buying up pockets of private land in and around the parks, which could otherwise be used for private development, as well as matching state and local funds to create local parks.

The plan to make funding permanent has 227 House cosponsors, including members of both political parties. That’s nine more than a House majority.

The blueprint was approved by the Senate in 2016 but has not been brought to a vote in the House. A Senate version of the bill was introduced by Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., last year and has 12 co-sponsors.

The fund was last approved in 2015 for three years after a fight by a group of conservatives who wanted to overhaul the program. They argued that the fund should have less to do with the government acquiring more land and do more to protect lands already in its possession.

The current bill allows for maximum funding of $900 million per year, but the latest budget bill funded the parks protection program at less than half of that: $425 million for the year.

Cheriss May / Tribune News Service A fund protects national parks by buying pockets of land that could otherwise be used for private development. A Senate bill for permanent funding was introduced by Richard Burr.