Land and Water Conservation Fund
Land and Water Conservation Fund
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The nation’s bedrock land acquisition program, the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) provides federal funding and state grants for the acquisition of land through annual appropriations approved by Congress and the president.
Since its start in 1965, the Fund has provided more than $13.2 billion to acquire 7 million acres of parks, wildlife refuges, national forest, and other federal public land, along with more than 40,000 grants to state and local governments for acquisition and development of parks and recreation areas. Money for the program comes almost exclusively from revenues from oil and gas production on federally owned waters on the outer continental shelf.
Congress decides each year how much money to spend on acquisitions, which are chosen by Congress and the four land management agencies in the federal government—the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Bureau of Land Management in the Interior Department, and the U.S. Forest Service, an agency of the Agriculture Department. The National Park Service also oversees a separate state grant program, which gives money to states to buy and develop recreational land and facilities. Congress has authorized spending up to $900 million each year on the LWCF program, but that level has rarely been reached. Since 1998, Congress also has diverted $1.6 billion of LWCF revenue for non–land acquisition purposes.
LWCF Programs
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Land and Water Conservation Fund - State Funding
The LWCF state program provides a 50% match to municipal subdivisions, state agencies and tribal governments for planning, developing, and acquiring land and water areas for natural resource protection and recreation enhancement.
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Land and Water Conservation Fund - Federal Funding
The LWCF's federal side provides funding for four federal agencies to protect land within existing recreation areas, parks, forests, refuges and other federal units.
More Information
- U.S. Forest Service
- National Park Service
- State contacts for NPS state LWCF grants
- Congressional Research Service report - Land and Water Conservation Fund: Overview, Funding History, and Current Issues (PDF download)
- The Conservation Fund report - Land and Water Conservation Fund: An Assessment of Its Past, Present and Future (PDF download)
