Katherine Hollis
Last week, we joined other Outdoor Alliance members - paddlers, climbers, backcountry skiers, mountaineers, and mountain bikers - from 5 states to advocate for public lands with officials in Washington DC. We met with lawmakers from Colorado, Montana, West Virginia, Arizona, Washington, and Tennessee to talk about the impending expiration of the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF).
TAKE ACTION!
The Senate is currently negotiating a continuing resolution to fund the government and the LWCF hasn't made the cut. If it is not included, the LWCF will lose authorization.
We've made it easy to let your representatives know how important the Land and Water Conservation Fund! Just follow this link!
Feel free to include language like this to your letter:
As a member of Washington’s outdoor recreation community, I appreciate your interest and support on this critical issue. Our community is deeply disappointed to hear that LWCF reauthorization is not in the Senate continuing resolution, and we would greatly appreciate any help you can lend in ensuring that LWCF--even as a short term extension--makes it into the final CR. Many thanks for your attention to this critically important issue for outdoor recreation in WA.
The LWCF has been critical in protecting public lands in all 50 states for 50 years. The program is funded by revenue from offshore gas and drilling, which is reinvested into improving and protecting public lands, from local trails to national parks. The outdoor recreation community relies on the LWCF for the creation of access points to rivers, trails, and parks. For instance, the LWCF was instrumental in creating primary put-in to the White Salmon River so that boaters could access its world-famous paddling.
Outdoor Alliance advocates met with dozens of lawmakers on September 14 and 15 to discuss the Land and Water Conservation Fund and to encourage members of Congress to take immediate action to renew it.
As a result of these visits and other advocacy efforts on the hill, more than a dozen new members signed on to the Dear Colleague calling for the renewal of the Fund. These members included Representative Zinke, a crucial member of the House Natural Resources Committee, as well as Senator Capito, Senator Manchin, Senator Daines, Senator Tester, Senator Bennet, Senator Gardner, and Senator Alexander.
The Senate is currently negotiating a Continuing Resolution to fund the government and we don’t know if LWCF is going to make the cut. If it isn’t included, the LWCF will lose authorization.
Let your representatives know how important the Land and Water Conservation Fund is to you!
We are proud to partner with the Outdoor Alliance on this issue.
