Obama’s FY15 Budget Boosts Funds for Land Conservation and Outdoor Recreational Facilities

The president proposed spending $5.1 billion in Americas Great Outdoors programs, up $146 million or 3 percent above the 2012 enacted level. Of that, $4.6 billion would pay for core operations in the land management bureaus – National Park Service (NPS), Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)-up $26 million, or less than 1 percent from 2012. That increase would be spread across 397 NPS units, 556 national wildlife refuges managed by the FWS, and BLMs 37 national conservation areas, national monuments, and similarly designated areas.

 

The National Parks Conservation Association said the proposal would increase NPS funding by $56.6 million,  far short of the $130 million cut from its budget this year as a result of the budget sequester. Although national parks generate $30 billion in annual spending, the budget for the system is 20 percent below its level a decade ago and the agency faces a multi-billion maintenance backlog, NCPA says.

 

We need the President and Congress to make sure Americas national parks are open and well-staffed and nothing in this budget provides us with any confidence that will happen, the NCPA said in a statement last week.

 

The Administration request for LWCF programs, by contrast, is $450 million, up $105 million from 2012. That includes $212 million for DOI Federal land acquisition, $65 million above 2012. LWCF grants to States, which are used primarily to develop outdoor recreational facilities, are increased by $15 million, or 34 percent to $60 million.

 

The LWCF is funded each year from royalties on federal oil and gas leases and can only be used to purchase land for conservation or to develop public parks. Since creating the fund in 1965, however, Congress has only appropriated the full $900 million authorized under law once.  Congress must vote on whether to renew LWCF in 2015.