The Roundup: LWCF, Wildlife Refuges, and Public Lands as Common Ground
We learned a couple of days ago that Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is attempting to illegally divert funds from the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) in order to halt the purchase of new public lands. These lands range from large acquisitions to something as small as a boat launch or baseball field, and touch almost every county in the United States. The funding for LWCF arrives not through taxes, but from royalties from offshore drilling. The intention behind this diversion of funds is a deferred maintenance program. Maintenance, of course, that's normally taken on by federal land agencies – the same agencies that have slashed funding and personnel under this regime. It makes no sense.
I'll note, too, that LWCF was reauthorized and re-funded as recently as 2020: widely celebrated under the Great American Outdoors Act, passed by President Trump. You see the irony here.
Call your representatives: (202) 224-3121.
Trump officials aim to divert money meant for buying wilderness land (Washington Post):
The Trump administration is testing the boundaries of the 1964 law creating the fund, which dictates that the money be used for acquiring land. Congress established a separate fund for maintenance that is up for reauthorization this year but has yet to be considered.
“It’s illegal to spend LWCF funds on maintenance and they know it,” Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-New Mexico) said in a statement. “If they move forward, they will be sued and they will lose. It’s not too much to ask to follow the law.”
The administration’s effort comes after a Republican plan to sell off public land was met with widespread backlash across the political spectrum, even among ardent Trump supporters.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service is withdrawing the final Land Protection Plan for the Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge.
According to previous reporting done by MyHighPlains.com, the expansion, announced in April, was going to add over 700,000 acres. The expansion, working with willing sellers, was to expand conservation efforts through fee title and easement acquisitions.
As noted by the Center for Biological Diversity and in previous reports, the expansion would have served to help conservation and restoration efforts for the region’s grasslands, which serve as habitats for migratory birds and other wildlife.
Some terrific visual reporting by Reuters in Eroding Protections for Public Lands:
The U.S. Congress has passed hundreds of laws protecting federal public lands over the past century through bipartisan efforts and with the support of local governments.
Now, President Donald Trump’s administration and some Republican lawmakers in Congress are pushing policies and legislation that upend these protections. Plans to open nearly 59 million acres of national forest land to road construction and mandate lease sales for drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge prioritize energy extraction over conservation.
