NCNS: Environmental groups push state legislature to reauthorize conservation fund

From North Carolina News Service

Stephanie Carson

Some members of Congress are calling for reauthorizing the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which officially turns 50 this week and is set to expire next year.

Offshore oil and gas developers pay into LWCF, with the money divvied up among states for local recreation and conservation projects. Currently the U.S. House is proposing funding for 2015 that wouldn’t even cover the needs for land conservation in North Carolina next year, according to Jay Leutze, a Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy board member.

“North Carolina would see no money for closing inholdings in our national forests in 2015,” Leutze, “and that would be a real problem because some of the inholdings are in places that people are very familiar with.”

Among the land conservation needs, he lists prime trout habitat near the Pisgah Forest in Mills River and areas in Blowing Rock and near Uwharrie National Forest. Leuzte said he and others are counting on the U.S. House to back reauthorizing LWCF and to propose greater funding.

In most years, Congress raids at least part of the fund for other purposes. But former Deputy Secretary of the Interior Lynn Scarlett, now managing director for public policy at The Nature Conservancy, is calling for continued funding, at least at current levels, and despite a more contentious political climate than when the LWCF was created.

“As envisioned by a bipartisan Congress 50 years ago,” Scarlett said, “we need to continue to reinvest those revenues into sustaining our lands, waters and natural resources for the long-term benefit of our communities.”

Leutze said the funding touches the lives of North Carolinians in all walks of life.

“I think it’s important for people across North Carolina to appreciate that everything from soccer fields to greenways – over 900 state, local and federal projects – have been funded in North Carolina by the Land and Water Conservation Fund,” Leutze said.

A coalition of groups – including The Wilderness Society and The Nature Conservancy – also is pushing Congress to reauthorize the LWCF, and released a report this week outlining its successes. The report is online at lwcfcoalition.org.

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About Carrie Eidson
Multimedia journalist and Green Scene editor at Mountain Xpress. Part-time Twitterer @mxenv but also reachable at ceidson@mountainx.com. Follow me @carrieeidson

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