All too often overlooked for their ecological value, the California’s Mojave and Colorado deserts feature stunning biodiversity, surpassing even many forest ecosystems. More than 2,400 native plant species, 72 occurring nowhere else on earth, reside in the windswept dunes, craggy mountains, life-giving waters, and other habitats that encompass the region. This landscape makes up 27% of the state’s land mass, sequesters 10% of its carbon, and is the nation’s largest relatively intact ecosystem outside of Alaska. This, however, belies the fragility of California’s deserts, which face unprecedented pressures from climate change and development.

After almost 60 years of fighting against diversion of Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) dollars, in 2020, the LWCF Coalition celebrated passage of the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA). This legislation secured permanent funding for LWCF at $900 million dollars annually, creating a consistent funding stream for conservation and outdoor recreation projects. By protecting our natural and cultural treasures, working forests and wildlife habitat, permanent LWCF funding ensures outdoor access for all Americans no matter where they live, clean safe drinking water, natural climate mitigation, and jobs in our communities. Yet, despite all these benefits and the overwhelming bipartisan will of Congress, LWCF is still under threat.

The Yakima River is one of the West’s premier desert trout streams and a lifeline for fish and wildlife of southcentral Washington. It flows 214 miles from Keechelus Lake in the Cascade Mountains to the Columbia River, with a glorious 27-mile stretch through the Yakima River Canyon. In the upper reaches of the canyon, Western Rivers Conservancy is using recreational access funding from the Land and Water Conservation Fund to place cherished river access points into public hands forever.

As the longest undammed main stem river east of the Mississippi, the Delaware River Watershed (DRW) provides drinking water to over 13.3 million people in the region, including two out of the five largest metropolitan centers in the country: New York City and Philadelphia, along with the cities of Camden, Trenton, and Wilmington.

With enactment of the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) ensuring at least $900 million each year for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), hundreds of conservation and recreation projects can be completed. These projects range from local parks in cities and small towns, to federal land acquisitions that fill gaps inside our National Parks, and to easements that protect sustainable working forests. These different types of projects are carried out under LWCF’s ten sub-programs, which have specific and differing internal processes and timelines for funding and project completion. In this blog post we will dive into five of the sub-programs, explaining the LWCF project lists that appear in the President’s budget proposal for fee and easement acquisitions within the National Park Service (NPS), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), US Forest Service (USFS) and the Forest Legacy Program (FLP).

This summer, the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) Coalition celebrated our biggest success to date with passage of the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA). After over a decade fighting for full, permanent funding and overcoming 55 years of diversion of LWCF dollars, we were thrilled to finally secure the dedicated funding LWCF needs to protect our lands and waters.