Outdoorsmen and women are celebrating now that the Great American Outdoors Act was signed into law by President Donald Trump.
This bipartisan legislation will improve our public lands, stabilize funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) and provide economic relief to help kickstart the economy, according to a news release from Ducks Unlimited.
Jim Shepherd, editor of The Outdoor Wire, a nationally-read online news service, wrote Wednesday morning, “there’s little doubt that the provisions in the new law will do more to help the ailing infrastructure of our country’s public lands.”
“In today’s news section,” Shepherd observed, “you’ll also see a new report that says several hundred thousand acres of those public lands are effectively landlocked. With the GAOA now passed, there should be enough money in the federal coffers to allow Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and his staff to address plenty of issues.”
In his morning column, Shepherd provided links to the reactions of more than a dozen outdoor-related organizations.
According to Ducks Unlimited, “This legislation will create a National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund to address the growing maintenance backlog on federal public lands. Half the revenue from energy development on public lands would be allocated to the fund and distributed to the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the Bureau of Indian Education to cover overdue maintenance costs.”
This legislation, according to supporters, will fully and permanently fund the LWCF at $900 million annually, ensuring all funding is directed to its intended purpose of state and federal conservation projects.
