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The Interior Department will distribute $279 million this year from the Land and Water Conservation Fund to states, territories, and the District of Columbia for outdoor recreation and public land conservation projects. California will receive $23 million, the largest allotment of any state, while most Western states will receive between $2 and $5 million.
The LWCF helps increase public access to and protection of federal public lands and waters—including national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, and recreation areas—and provides grants to state governments for recreation planning, acquisition of lands and waters, and facility development.
The LWCF was established in 1965 and is funded by royalties from offshore oil and gas development. It was underfunded by Congress up until the 2020 passage of the Great American Outdoors Act, which automatically funds the program, bypassing Congress completely. The LWCF is authorized to receive and distribute up to $900 million each year, but that number can go down if offshore royalties don't result in enough revenue to reach that limit.
A formula in the Land and Water Conservation Act calls for a portion of the funding to be divided equally among the states, while the remaining funding is apportioned based on a number of factors, including the population of the state and the number of out-of-state visitors using the state's public lands and facilities.
BLM acquires 35,670 acres in Wyoming
The BLM has purchased a private ranch near Casper in the agency's largest land purchase in Wyoming to date. The property borders the North Platte River and will enable anglers and other outdoor enthusiasts to reach a new stretch of popular fly-fishing waters. The purchase also opens up access to 40,000 acres of previously unreachable state and federal lands.
The Conservation Fund, a national environmental group, worked closely with the BLM to acquire the property, and the agency received $21 million from the Land and Water Conservation Fund last year to purchase the ranch in its entirety. The purchase will "conserve crucial wildlife habitat at a landscape scale,” BLM High Plains district manager Kevin Christensen said in a statement. The purchase also contributes to the Biden administration’s goal to conserve 30 percent of U.S. land and waters by 2030.
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Few Indigenous youth are able to journey to Grand Canyon for many reasons, including barriers to transportation, financial means and accessibility. Our goal through the Native Conservation Corps is to provide a pathway to bring underserved Indigenous youth to Grand Canyon and involve them in conservation projects in an effort to keep their legacy as stewards alive and well.”
