By: Lori Trahan
It can be easy to take for granted the natural beauty of Massachusetts in our everyday lives. Too often, we find ourselves rushing between work and family commitments, especially during this moment where the boundaries between work and home life are increasingly blurred. It’s difficult to make time for a trip to enjoy the outdoors or even to take a breath of fresh air.
For those of us struggling with that feeling, COVID-19 has certainly made it worse. We are now largely stuck at home. If we go out, it requires extensive planning. Are we going to be able to socially distance? Did we make a reservation? Did our kids bring their masks? Who has the hand sanitizer?
But with the daily stresses of living and functioning as a family in a global pandemic comes a unique opportunity for us to return to a safe pastime – a chance to get outside, be active, and do so safely during a visit to a national park here in our own backyard.
The renewed passion we’ve seen for the outdoors in the coronavirus era is reminiscent of the same movement toward outdoor recreation that led to President John F. Kennedy’s proposal in 1962 to establish the Land and Water Conservation Fund – or LWCF. In his own words, the Fund would be used “to assist the States and Federal agencies in meeting present and future outdoor recreational demands and needs of the American people.”
With the signing of the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act two years later by President Johnson, the nation took an enormous step toward guaranteeing every American a chance to enjoy our nation’s outdoors heritage.
The structure of LWCF is a simple one: use revenue from offshore oil and gas drilling to secure close-to-home recreational opportunities and engage in robust conservation efforts on those public lands. Funding will commonly be used to support improvements to parks and playgrounds, protect land for conservation, recreation, or for historical purposes – such as Colonel Barrett’s Farm at Minute Man National Historical Park.
For a while, it worked.
Yet, the future of LWCF was cast into doubt due to longstanding gaps in the law. Since its creation, the Fund lacked permanent authorization to remain the tremendous resource it is for national parks and public lands across America.
To make matters worse, funds have repeatedly been diverted from the program for other non-conservation focused purposes. That means LWCF has not received its full allotment of $900 million to support community-driven outdoor projects around the nation for years. When paired with the President’s proposed cuts to the program, it was difficult for many to see the path forward for the largest conservation effort in our nation.
However, the current class in the House of Representatives, dubbed the “Conservation Congress,” has taken action to eliminate both of these threats to LWCF. Not only have we passed legislation to permanently reauthorize LWCF, but we also voted just over a month ago to pass the bipartisan Great American Outdoors Act. This historic legislation, which recently became law, fully funds LWCF and prevents the future diversion of the program’s funds for non-conservation purposes.
But this legislation doesn’t stop there. It also provides funding to finally address the $22 billion deferred maintenance backlog in our national parks and other public lands. Here in Massachusetts, this long overdue funding will be used to fix buildings, trails, roads and other infrastructure at our parks like Minute Man, which currently has a maintenance backlog of $12.4 million.
In an age when we’re constantly looking for ways to get ourselves and our kids out of the house in the safest way possible, national parks have increasingly become the answer. I’m proud of the work the “Conservation Congress” has done to secure that opportunity the same way that President Kennedy knew was so important – by investing in the Land and Water Conservation Fund for generations to come.
