October 2011 - Parks & Recreation - 79

tulipane Recognized
for LWcF Support
National Association State Park Directors grateful for
NRPA Stateside support.

o R h eR u n WaV eR i n G s u P P o Rt of a major funding cornerstone of u.s. parks, nRPa Ceo
barbara tulipane has been awarded the
prestigious Rockefeller-udall award.
tulipane became only the second
recipient of the award given by the national association of state Park Directors which recognized her fierce eﬀorts
to protect the state funding portion of
the land and Water Conservation Fund
(lWCF). Former new Mexico Governor
bill Richardson is the only other recipient
of the award named after philanthropist
and parks advocate laurence Rockefeller and Department of the interior secretary stuart udall. nasPD presented
the award to tulipane september 8 at its
annual conference, held at Custer state
Park, south Dakota.
lWCF, created by Congress in 1965,
was intended to help preserve, develop,
and assure access to outdoor recreation
facilities to strengthen the health of the
american public. When originally authorized, the act required a minimum of 60
percent of total lWCF funds be allocated to the state assistance program-or
" stateside, " as many refer to it. that provision was removed in the 1970s, permitting
between 40 and 100 percent of the funding to go to the federal land acquisition
program. this change in the law has resulted in the state assistance program averaging only 16 percent of lWCF funding over
the last 25 years. since 1965, lWCF state
assistance has provided nearly $4 billion

in matching funds to states, territories, and
local communities. stateside has funded
more than 41,000 local and state projects
in 98 percent of u.s. counties. however,
stateside funding has steadily declined,
from more than $376 million in 1979 to only
$40 million in FY 2010. Further, the Department of the interior (Doi) has stated its intention to change the way state assistance
funds are allocated to states. Doi proposes
to control stateside funds, with even less
money going to states.
Furthermore, a key provision within
President obama's america's Great outdoors report calls for states receiving only
40 percent of the proposed full $200 million lWCF funding in 2012. the remaining
60 percent of the stateside portion would
go to a competitive grant program that
would be administered by Doi. states can
compete for their share, but Doi has indicated it will have sole discretion for the selection of projects and the amount of their
funding. nRPa experts following the issue
say Doi will most likely use the competitive grant program to fund a few select
projects, with most focusing on largescale urban projects. Doi has confirmed
that not every state will receive a portion
of the competitive grant funding.
under tulipane's efforts, nRPa has
increasingly challenged the federal government to reverse its approach to lWCF,
stressing that it is much more than a federal land acquisition program. that anyone
would oppose championing stateside distresses tulipane.

this is one we can't
just put a hold button
on. once the natural
resources are gone,
they are gone.
" unfortunately, there are people out
there who are opposed to it, " she says.
" because either they felt it would take
away from the federal land acquisition program or they felt that it would somehow
jeopardize the request for full funding. so,
there has been pushback, unfortunately.
" the original intent of lWCF when it
was authored, was: states get a minimum

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October 2011 - Parks & Recreation

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