June 2015 - Parks & Recreation - 14

Letters
ty of life attractive enough to make
them among the fastest growing
communities in the country.
So why does Chairman Bishop
claim LWCF needs to be " reformed? "
As is often the case in politics, there
is the public answer and the real answer. In this instance, the public justifications just don't hold water.
The fact that the National Park
Service, Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service and Fish and
Wildlife Service have unmet mainte-

have been inadequate but once again,
the solution is for Congress to do its
job, not raid LWCF.
Although Chairman Bishop and
some of his colleagues like to argue
the federal government owns too
much land, the number of acres under federal ownership in a given state
is not really the figure that matters.
When calculated on a per-capita basis, western states have some of the
highest rates of non-federal land in
the lower 48 due to lower population

The solution is for Congress to reorder its spending
priorities and adequately fund these agencies, not
divert more funding from the LWCF.
nance needs is not a reason to raid the
LWCF. The maintenance budgets of
our federal land management agencies are funded through the annual
budget and appropriations process.
Sequestration, government shutdowns, borrowing to fund the war in
Iraq and other short-sighted budget
decisions have left them broke. The
solution is for Congress to reorder its
spending priorities and adequately
fund these agencies, not divert more
funding from the LWCF.
Chairman Bishop and his allies
want to raid the college fund to pay
for groceries. It's not exactly the fiscally responsible position.
Attacking the LWCF on the
grounds that states and localities do
not collect taxes from public lands
also fails. Congress created the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) Program to reimburse local governments
for that lost revenue. Of course, funding for PILT is also subject to appropriation - recent spending levels
12	 Parks & Recreation

numbers. If public education in Utah
or elsewhere is struggling, the presence of federal land is not the cause.
Chairman Bishop is correct in
saying the LWCF has two parts -
one for federal land conservation
and acquisition, and another for
state matching grants. However, he
wrongly suggests that the LWCF
needs to change because the federal
side has usurped stateside matching-grant funds. In fact, the law that
created the LWCF states that the
federal program shall receive " not
less than 40 percent " of the funding,
meaning Congress already has the
authority to allocate a majority of
LWCF funding to the state-side program if it chooses to do so.
Given the weakness of Chairman
Bishop's claims, one must ask: what
is really going on here? This attack on
LWCF is part of a larger campaign
to hand over our federal public lands
to profiteering. Much federal land
is owned by Uncle Sam because the

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government couldn't give it away in
the 18th and early 19th centuries, but
things have changed. Oil and gas
companies, mining conglomerates,
timber companies, real-estate developers, and large-scale agribusinesses
would love to get their hands on open
space in the west. Some in Congress
want to help them.
Chairman Bishop recently formed
a Federal Land Action Group to
study legislation to sell or give away
federal lands to the highest bidder.
He launched this assault on LWCF
because it is a powerful tool for land
conservation. Pointing to unrelated
issues, and even claiming the LWCF
led to a woman's death, conceal his
true goal: Helping for-profit companies profit more from resources that
belong to the American people.
Rather than trying to weaken or
destroy the LWCF, Congress should
renew and strengthen the program.
We face more habitat fragmentation, greater urban sprawl and more
advanced climate change than ever
before. Of the $36 billion that has
flowed into the fund, less than half
has actually been appropriated for
the purposes identified in the 1965
Act. It is time to double down on the
promise of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, not fold so developers can cash out.
NRPA's mission statement is: " To
advance parks, recreation and environmental conservation efforts that
enhance the quality of life for all
people. " The aims of those seeking
to undermine the Land and Water
Conservation Fund and seize and sell
our public lands could not be more at
odds with that mission.
Rep. Raul Grijalva is the U.S. Congressional Representative for Arizona's 3rd district.
He has served in that post since 2003.
June 2015 - Parks & Recreation

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