Money to Protect Land is Being Diverted

by Ben Beach

A summit of coalition leaders are meeting this month in California to boost appropriations being frozen and diverted from parks and natural areas across the country. For more information, contact the Wilderness Society at 202-833-2300. Photo by John Kauffmann, provided courtesy of the National Park Service.

Money that, by law, is supposed to be invested in parkland and other natural areas is being siphoned off by Congress, and conservationists meeting in California in January vowed an energetic campaign to combat the problem.

At issue is use of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Created in 1965, it takes in $900 million each year in offshore oil and gas royalties. But over the past fifteen years, only a quarter of that funding has actually been appropriated by Congress to enable federal agencies to acquire tracts with high recreation and wildlife value. The law also provides for matching grants to help states and localites buy land or build recreation facilities.