The U.S. Senate voted Tuesday to permanently reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund, a bill championed by Colorado Sens. Cory Gardner and Michael Bennet, as part of a massive public lands package.
The fund uses revenue from offshore oil and gas drilling to reinvest into public lands. Since the LWCF’s creation in 1964, about $900 million each year in royalties from oil and gas companies have been placed into the fund and benefited conservation efforts throughout the country.
A number of projects in Southwest Colorado have benefited from LWCF funds, including 17 in La Plata County totaling nearly $1.6 million, among them is the Perins Peak State Wildlife Area. Archuleta County has received almost $500,000, and Montezuma County has received about $150,000.
Despite bipartisan support, the fund expired in September 2018. Since then, there has been a strong push to permanently reauthorize the LWCF.
“Public lands are a huge part of who we are in Colorado. It’s a huge part of our economy,” Gardner said in an interview with The Durango Herald. “I’m a Coloradan, and Coloradans support the outdoors.”
The LWCF has seen to the creation and maintenance of national parks, federal reserves and community parks throughout Colorado, including Rocky Mountain National Park. The Outdoor Industry Association, a trade organization, reported LWCF contributed about $8.7 million to fund and maintain Rocky Mountain National Park.
“The program has invested in every county in the country, in every state in the country, which is why it’s had such broad bipartisan support,” said Jonathan Asher, a co-chairman of the LWCF Coalition, a network of conservation groups charged with support and oversight of the fund.
The LWCF Coalition estimates the fund would have earned almost $332 million since its expiration last year. Although the revenue was collected from the oil and gas companies during the fund’s expiration, “without the authorization, that funding has just been going to the general treasury,” Asher said.
Bennet, who introduced legislation to permanently reauthorize the LWCF in 2015, supported the permanent authorization of the fund and additional provisions in the lands package.
“It’s rare that a bipartisan lands package moves in Congress, so this bill is a significant accomplishment for communities across Colorado,” Bennet said in a statement.
By permanently reauthorizing the fund, Congress will safeguard against another expiration in funding and inject a measure of stability into conservation groups planning future programs.
“If you’re looking 10 years down the road and you don’t know if the project will be available, it adds more uncertainty to an already fraught process,” Asher said.
Although Gardner has consistently supported the LWCF, some conservation organizations urged a more significant push for protected lands in Colorado.
“Today’s vote is the first step in fixing a problem of Congress’ own making. It was tragically unnecessary for LWCF to expire in the first place and though Sen. Cory Gardner supports LWCF, we saw no real leadership to make it happen,” said Kelly Nordini, executive director of Conservation Colorado, a nonprofit focused on electing conservation-focused policymakers.
“Colorado’s great outdoors are a national treasure, and I’ll always fight to protect our public lands for Coloradans to enjoy,” Gardner said in a written statement.
Liz Weber is a student at American University in Washington, D.C., and an intern for The Durango Herald.
