As our new secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, is a Westerner, we expect he knows that our public lands are key to expanding young people’s opportunities to experience the outdoors.
Our group, Environmental Learning for Kids, hosts many trips each year to places like the Great Sand Dunes and the new Browns Canyon National Monument with underserved and urban youth who participate in our science education and outdoor experience programs.
ELK inspires, educates and transforms youth by exposing them to our public lands and endowing them with a sense of community stewardship. As one said after a recent trip, “I never connected to others in my community until I found a passion for the outdoors with people who felt the same way.”
That’s why we agree with Sens. Michael Bennet and Cory Gardner that the Land and Water Conservation Fund, the “crown jewel” of our nation’s conservation programs, should be fully funded and permanently reauthorized.
More than 20 U.S. senators recently introduced LWCF legislation to do just that. Coloradans support protection of our public lands; we oppose any attempts to gut the LWCF as part of the budget process or through other back channels as the Trump administration has threatened
Outdoor recreation drives economic growth, creates jobs and produces significant revenues for local communities. The LWCF is the key federal investment in a sector that has supported more than 6 million American jobs.
The young people of ELK and I hope that Secretary Zinke will stand up in support of the LWCF.
I encourage Zinke to come visit Colorado and see first-hand the benefits of our protected public lands, the impact of the LWCF and the role they play in enabling young people to become the next generation of stewards.
Loretta Pineda
Denver
Editor’s note: Loretta Pineda is executive director of Environmental Learning for Kids and can be reached at lpineda@elkkids.org.
