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Last year, Congress passed the Great American Outdoors Act, a significant bipartisan investment in America's public lands. The law permanently funded the Land and Water Conservation Fund and allocated resources to address the maintenance backlog on public lands. On Friday, the Interior Department announced the first dispersement of funds, which will invest $1.6 billion in 165 projects across the country.
The improvement projects will be in national parks, wildlife refuges, and Bureau of Indian Education schools, and will start to chip away at the significant backlog of deferred maintenance on public lands. Just within the national park system, the maintenance backlog has grown to $12 billion since the 1990s.
In addition, the funding will cause cascading economic benefits. Interior announced that this set of projects will create nearly 19,000 jobs and add $2 billion to the country’s gross domestic product this year. “Through the Great American Outdoors Act, we are investing in the American people, and in the future of our public lands and sacred spaces,” said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.
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“We are lucky to have an Indigenous woman [as Interior Secretary] who truly understands the missing and murdered crisis in Indian Country and is taking immediate action to protect the lives of Native peoples.”
