Defend our conservation dollars

 

Many of us choose to live in the Upper Peninsula because we enjoy living in a rural community surrounded by boundless outdoor activities. Whether it is camping or hunting, fishing our favorite stream, or hiking a trail, the lure of the great outdoors makes this home. It is easy to take public access and recreational activities on public lands for granted and only rarely do we consider how these precious public lands were acquired.

 

I recently returned from Washington, D.C., where I visited the offices of Michigan Sens. Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin, Congressman Dan Benishek, and several other Michigan Congressmen to talk about the importance of protecting recreational lands and forests through a program called the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Since 1965, the LWCF has provided funding to help protect Michigan’s outdoor heritage including 31,000 acres of land along the Ontonagon River, nearly 2000 acres within the Sturgeon River Gorge Wilderness area and funded more than $1 million in grants in Ontonagon County and $282,708 in Gogebic County for improvements at Eddy Park, Steiger Field and Lake Gogebic.

 

The U.S. Forest Service’s Forest Legacy Program is also funded with LWCF dollars and has helped conserve over 150,000 acres across the state with working forest easements. This helps keep forest products jobs in Michigan while enhancing wildlife habitat, water quality, and recreation. These are not tax dollars. The LWCF is funded from a small portion of the proceeds the government receives from federal offshore oil and gas lease royalties and not from our taxes. However, each year, $900 million of the more than $6 billion that oil and gas companies pay to the federal government each year is supposed to go to LWCF. Instead it is raided for other government purposes, breaking the promise to the American people established 45 years ago. Congress slashed the program to only one-third of what it is supposed to receive in the recently enacted federal budget.

 

Now, the House passed budget plan for this year proposes to eliminate it altogether. Congress hasn’t yet made a final decision, and we still have the opportunity to protect this program that has done so much for our state and our local community. Those of us who have spent time outdoors in the U.P. know that our outdoor recreational economy is booming. Each year 4.9 million people hunt, fish or watch wildlife spending $5.1 billion on wildlife-associated recreation in Michigan alone.

 

LWCF has ensured that the Upper Peninsula forests, lakes, streams and recreational attributes including trails are protected for our enjoyment and future generations through conservation easements and sales initiated by willing private land owners who choose to leave a legacy of preservation. Today, local citizens are working together in support of LWCF funding to protect special lands in the Ottawa and Hiawatha national forests. This conservation opportunity could permanently protect stretches of the North Country National Scenic Trail and its view shed. The ability to protect these properties and the trail depends on a robust and committed LWCF program, and not one that continuously gets raided.

 

While there is a need to trim the federal budget, LWCF is a program that is structured to give back natural resource protection as our natural resources offshore are depleted. Levin and Stabenow both expressed their commitment to the citizens of Michigan by recognizing how this small portion of oil lease revenue can have a huge impact on our local communities. We must urge Benishek to join with us to ensure the protection of our great lands. Let’s not lose sight of the important contribution LWCF will have for the many future generations of U.P. residents who will enjoy the outdoors as we do today. For more information about LWCF and to learn what you can do to support our efforts go to lwcfcoaliton.org.

 

Nancy Warren, of Ewen, has been a proponent of conservation issues for over 25 years, serving on several local environmental boards. She was one of three Michigan residents sponsored by the Land and Water Fund Coalition to participate in the DC Lobby Day Fly-in. Contact her at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .