This Year’s Land and Water Conservation Fund Projects: Breaking Down the Agency Priority Lists in the President’s Budget
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).
For detailed information on the other LWCF-funded grant programs and to learn more about the project proposal phase of the process, view our LWCF Project Toolkit.
LWCF Appropriations Timeline
President’s Budget and Project Lists
Each year, in accordance with GAOA, the Administration must submit detailed program, account, and priority project lists for LWCF as part of their annual budget submission. Additionally, these program allocations must comply with the John D. Dingell Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act which requires that each year 40 percent of LWCF funding is provided for federal land acquisition (BLM, FWS, NPS, and USFS), 40 percent for the LWCF-funded state grant programs (Stateside, ORLP, FLP, ABPP, Highlands, and Section 6), and that the remaining 20 percent is be divided among the 10 programs based on needs for that year. Concurrently with the President’s budget, the five agency land acquisition programs must submit LWCF project lists to Congress that include no less than 50 percent of the amount allocated to each program in the prior year. This supplemental list is intended to ensure Congress can assess some of the additional needs when allocating funding to LWCF projects and programs. Oftentimes, not every project on the list will be funded, but longer agency lists help demonstrate the outstanding conservation needs in our federal lands.
The priority or “Core Project List,” and supplemental project lists are the culmination of work across the country to thoroughly vet and rank LWCF project requests that are proposed by local and regional agency staff. Each year the federal land management agencies propose lists of priority LWCF projects that have been ranked through internal processes at the regional and national levels. These projects are sent to Congress and printed in each agency’s budget justification. The projects that make it onto these lists are the most ready-to-go and important conservation and recreation priorities for the land management agencies each fiscal year.
FY22 Project Lists:
Department of the Interior Priority List (BLM, NPS, FWS)
US Forest Service (Includes Supplemental List)
Forest Legacy Program (Includes Supplemental List)
FY22 Bureau of Land Management Priority/Core LWCF Project List:
As seen in the graphic above, the proposed core/priority project list for each agency, highlighted in green, is included with the President’s budget submission, and may sometimes appear both sorted alphabetically by state or ranked in priority order. For the Department of the Interior (DOI) they provide both ranked and non-ranked project lists, and the USFS and FLP only provide ranked lists.
In addition to the project lists, there are also line-item allocations, highlighted in orange above, for each agency that include the following accounts (these vary depending on the agency):
Recreational Access Account
This relatively new funding account is used by the federal agencies to acquire parcels of land that are important to provide recreational opportunities, including hunting and fishing. This account allows the agencies to use funds quickly, on an as-needed basis throughout the fiscal year. NOTE: nearly all, if not all, LWCF projects provide recreational access - both those projects on the priority lists and within the recreational access fund.
Inholdings, Donations, and Exchanges
The agencies utilize this funding account to purchase smaller properties within designated unit boundaries from willing sellers. This account is used as opportunities arise for acquisitions on an as-needed basis throughout the fiscal year.
Emergencies, Hardships, and Relocations
The agencies use this, or similar LWCF funding accounts, to support an acquisition where a landowner within a unit boundary is experiencing hardship (e.g. financial or health) or where a management emergency may be addressed through land acquisition.
Acquisition Management
This account supports federal agency staffing needs and pays the costs for implementing the agency’s land acquisition program, often including due diligence costs such as land surveys and appraisals.
The Role of Congress
Under the guidelines of GAOA, after the Administration publishes their proposed priority project lists and sends the supplemental lists to Congress, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees review these lists and may make changes to the project lists, line-items, and overall program allocations. As mentioned above in regard to program allocations, the Dingell Act requires that each year Congress must provide 40 percent of LWCF funding for federal land acquisition, 40 percent for the LWCF-funded state grant programs, and the remaining 20 percent should be divided based on program need for that year. Additionally, GAOA ensures $900 million in mandatory funding for LWCF each year.
While staying within the GAOA and Dingell Act legal frameworks, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, acting through the respective Subcommittees on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies, may add or remove projects from the agency lists, increase or decrease program allocations, and even provide more than $900 million to LWCF by directing discretionary dollars towards LWCF conservation and recreation projects. The example below compares the FY22 Forest Legacy Program budget request to the program project list included in the House Appropriations Committee report from July 1st. As seen highlighted in red, the House bill cut the last three projects from the budget request and reduced the amount of funding for program administration. Projects like these that were removed from the House’s list are often referred to as “below the cut line” and projects on the list may be referred to as “above the line.”
FY22 Forest Legacy Project List (President’s Budget):
FY22 Forest Legacy Project List (House Interior Appropriations Legislation):
A similar process can also occur for adding projects to Congress’s priority list. In those instances, Congress will usually include all the projects from an agencies priority list but then add projects from the supplemental list as well. This will increase the overall allocation for the specific sub-program. Additionally, if the House removes or adds a project as mentioned above, the Senate may choose to also cut that project, or others, or may choose to restore funding to projects cut by the House. These differences are reconciled during “Conference” negotiations between the House and Senate at the end of the year (continue reading below for more information on “Conference”).
Community Project Funding (aka Earmarks)
Community Project Funding requests, also referred to as “congressional directed spending” or “earmarks,” are another avenue for adding projects to Congress’s priority list. After a 10-year hiatus, both the House and Senate leadership reinstated the process offering members of Congress to request funds for specific vetted projects that may not have been identified in federal agency program requests. Although the process differs between the House and Senate, both allow Members of Congress to submit written requests to the appropriations committees asking for certain projects to be included in the Interior and Environment Appropriations legislation. This is an excellent way for Members of Congress with projects on the core or supplemental list to increase the likelihood that their project gets funded, but they may also request projects that weren’t included in the Administration’s budget request or supplemental lists.
Final Project Lists
Proposed agency core/priority projects and earmark funding requests may be reversed or amended further during final negotiations (aka “Conference”) between the House and Senate over differences in their separate bills. They are finalized when both chambers of Congress pass the final Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations bill and accompanying Conference Report, usually late in the calendar year. LWCF project and program allocations for the fiscal year aren’t official until after the President signs the bill into law. NOTE: While the federal fiscal year ends on September 30, over the past decade or more Congress has not finalized annual appropriations bills by that deadline, instead enacting one or more “Continuing Resolutions” to keep agencies afloat while final negotiations continue. These “CRs” do not include any new LWCF project funding; they are simply extensions of existing agency program funding.
How Can I Advocate for Conservation and Recreation in this Process?
If you work for, or with, a land trust or other land protection organization or with a private landowner on a project on the FY22 list you are probably already advocating for your project with Members of Congress and the Administration, but other conservation and recreation stakeholders (like businesses, community groups, hikers, paddlers, sportsmen and women, climate activists, and many others) should also advocate for the types of projects they want to see and a maximum number of projects overall. For those less familiar with LWCF project advocacy, here are a few key actions you can take:
Check out the project lists (linked above) to see what projects are in your state or congressional district, or area of interest. Also check out the LWCF Future Projects map which will be updated with FY22 projects very soon!
Contact your Senators and Representative to tell them why you care about LWCF and the project, or projects, you are supporting. Make sure they understand how they can support the project, and LWCF in general, by contacting their respective appropriations committee or by submitting Community Project Funding requests.
Contact the LWCF Coalition to get more information on certain projects or to ask about project advocacy!
FY 2023 process already underway!
The agency processes for selecting priority core projects for the proposed FY23 President’s budget is already well underway, even as Congress hasn’t finalized its deliberations on the FY22 proposals. There are many plates spinning at once when it comes to LWCF project selection, and it can be a daunting process for some, so please contact the LWCF Coalition if you have any questions!