Grand way to preserve our parks
Congress must help us care for neglected natural treasures
“It is with a great deal of pride and pleasure and hope for the future that we enact into law today [some] of the most far-reaching conservation measures that a farsighted nation has ever coped with.”
– President Lyndon B. Johnson, surrounded by a bipartisan cast of senators and House members, on Sept. 3, 1964, when signing the Wilderness Act and the Land & Water Conservation Fund.
Throughout American history, many of our greatest accomplishments have come when people have set aside short-term comfort in favor of farsighted visions, parochialism in favor of the greater good and partisanship for broad public interest. Right now, Congress has an opportunity to add to this rich history by approving the Great American Outdoors Act, which would fully, permanently fund the Land and
Water Conservation Fund or LWCF.
When Johnson signed the LWCF into law, it was the natural step after decades of conservation efforts from both Democrats and Republicans, dating back at least to Theodore Roosevelt.
Johnson, a Democrat, and the Congress of 1964 built on the efforts of the preceding administrations. In June 1958, Republican President Dwight Eisenhower signed into law an act establishing the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission. The country was getting more crowded with a post-war baby boom and the automobile-fueled expansion of the middle class, and sprawl began encroaching on open spaces. Meanwhile, demand for the great American outdoors was increasing.
From this commission came the LWCF. Over the past 56 years, it has made an indelible imprint on the American landscape, benefitting almost every single county across the United States. From ballparks and biking trails to state parks, forests and America’s beloved national parks, the LWCF has funded so many of our treasured outdoor places, including the Great Smokies, the Appalachian Trail, the Grand Canyon, Grand Tetons, Acadia National Park and so much more.
This program has been a huge success – and yet over the years Congress has diverted funds away from conservation. The program is supposed to receive $900 million in royalties per year from offshore oil drilling. The catch is that in each annual budget, lawmakers must appropriate the money, or the cash never makes it to our parks.
Sadly, Congress has fully funded the LWCF only twice, diverting to other uses a whopping $22 billion collected for our parks. In light of the value of public lands for human and environmental well-being, the shortfall in funding makes the “farsighted” nation that Johnson extolled look myopic.
On June 17, we got a vision correction. In a refreshingly bipartisan moment, the U.S. Senate voted 73-25 to pass the Great American Outdoors Act. Support for the bill didn’t just transcend parties, it transcended regionalism. Republican Sens. Cory Gardner of Colorado, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Steve Daines of Montana and Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Mark Warner of Virginia and Maria Cantwell of Washington all played key roles in shepherding the bill’s passage.
The Great American Outdoors Act would ensure that the LWCF receives the full $900 million it needs – and deserves – every year going forward. Additionally, over a five-year period, this bill would make a $9.5 billion down-payment on the $19 billion maintenance backlog that public lands have suffered.
That maintenance can’t come too soon. The National Park Service estimates that 41,000 park bridges, trails, roads, campgrounds and visitor centers need maintenance or repair. As a result, the American Society of Civil Engineers has given our parks a grade of D-plus for infrastructure.
It’s very rare these days for our elected officials in Washington, D.C., to find bipartisan agreement on anything. But this one time, in the midst of a pandemonium of disagreement as well as a pandemic, the opportunity to rescue our great national treasures – our parks – led to a different outcome. Senators ignored party lines and reaffirmed the truth of where our hearts lie – in the great American outdoors.
Now that the Senate has acted, we look to the House to follow suit. Like the Senate bill, the House bill is led by members of opposing parties from opposite sides of the country. Reps. Joe Cunningham, a South Carolina Democrat, and Mike Simpson, an Idaho Republican, are the lead sponsors. The bill was introduced with six members from each party, and now has 235 cosponsors, including Tennessee Reps. Steve Cohen, Jim Cooper, David Kustoff and Chuck Fleischmann.
Congress has within its sights a meaningful opportunity to make America a little more beautiful in ways that will benefit hikers and bikers, anglers and hunters, and those of us who just want to go for a walk or a picnic or toss a frisbee at the park down the street. That is all of us. Congress should pass the Great American Outdoors Act.
Engineers have given our parks a D-plus for infrastructure.