The most important four letters in the South

LWCF.

Most folks have never heard of the LWCF acronym, which stands for the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Yet LWCF has been the single most important way of acquiring public recreation lands over the past 40 years.

The Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) was established by Congress in 1965. The Act designated that a portion of receipts from offshore oil and gas leases be placed into a fund annually for state and local conservation, as well as for the protection of national parks, forests, and wildlife areas (LWCF does not in any way encourage oil and gas drilling, but simply ensures that a portion of the profits is used for buying public recreation lands). From local baseball fields to Yellowstone National Park, LWCF has enabled federal agencies to acquire nearly seven million acres of land and funded more than 37,000 state and local park and recreation projects. LWCF project sites in the Southeast include popular recreational areas as Harper's Ferry in West Virginia and the Chattahoochee River in Atlanta.

LWCF is authorized at $900 million annually, a level that has been met only twice during the program's history. Under the Clinton Administration, the LWCF was funded at $600 million. The Bush Administration has drastically slashed its funding to $59 million, the lowest ever in its 40-year history.

LWCF is particularly important for the Southeast, where significant population growth threatens the 25 million acres of forested lands within national forest purchase boundaries. The U.S. Forest Service ranks the Southeast as the area of the country that is losing valuable open space at the fastest rate and whose forest resources are most at risk. Here are more startling stats:

• The Southeast experienced the highest growth of any region in the country in the 80s and 90s, losing 6.5 million acres to development
• Of the 15 watersheds with the highest projected housing density growth, nine are located in the Southeast
• The Southeast produces the most timber in the country and has 89 percent of its forests in private ownership
• The lush Southeast contains some of the country's greatest biodiversity, including 1,208 vertebrate species, of which 132 are “of concern” and 28 are critically imperiled.

Despite the urgent need for more public lands in the Southeast, the Bush Administration’s 2008 budget recommendations contain no Southeastern LWCF projects whatsoever.

Fortunately, a new Congress and grassroots organizations are working for increased LWCF funding. Contact the Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition or visit www.safc.org for specific ways that you can support increased LWCF funding and more public lands in the Southeast.

-Will Harlan