Sunday, Aug. 26, 2018 | 2 a.m.
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One of the great things about living in Southern Nevada is our access to the outdoors. Not only do we have incredible public land resources, where we can hike, camp, hunt and fish, bird watch or just relax, we also have world-class urban parks and recreation facilities. What a lot of people don’t know is that many of our wildlife refuges, state parks, and urban parks and recreation facilities have been funded by a federal program called the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
The LWCF is a federal grant program that goes back over 50 years. Created through a bipartisan effort in Congress, it uses money collected by the federal treasury, from royalties paid for offshore oil and gas leases, to fund projects that promote outdoor recreation, habitat and wildlife conservation. The best part is it’s not tax money that we have to pay in to get back. These fund come directly into the treasury through lease sales.
Nevada has received over $102 million in LWCF money since the program’s inception, for hundreds of local projects that fund land acquisitions and recreation infrastructure at places like wildlife refuges, lakes, parks and sports facilities.
Just a few examples of some of the projects funded by LWCF dollars are the Floyd Lamb park at the Tule Springs Preserve, Valley of Fire State Park and the Las Vegas Springs Preserve. These are places where people go to enjoy nature right here inSouthern Nevada. LWCF also fund sports facilities, ballfields and community swimming pools.
There are dozens of projects in Las Vegas and hundreds throughout Nevada that have benefited even the smallest communities, such as Caliente, Ely, Tonopah, Pahrump and Hawthorne, with grants to build community swimming pools, parks and ball fields.
Unfortunately, the LWCF is set to expire at the end of September. One of the most successful, bipartisan federal programs is in jeopardy of expiring because folks in Congress can’t get it together to reauthorize it.
LWCF literally funds Americana: baseball and apple pie. Well, OK, maybe not apple pie, but I’ll bet a lot of pie has been served at LWCF-funded parks and fields, yet Congress is sitting on its hands. This is shameful.
We need our congressional delegation to show some leadership and make sure the LWCF is reauthorized and fully funded at the $900 million Congress intended when the bill was signed into law.
When Sen. Dean Heller was in the House of Representatives, he secured over $50 million for LWCF projects. Now, we need him to step up and show some leadership and help get LWCF fully funded. Time is running out. It’s time for Congress to quit messing around and get this done.
John Cahill is a member of state and local conservation organizations, and served on the first citizen advisory for the Clark County Shooting Complex. He is an outdoor enthusiast on foot and on wheels — on designated trails — and is retiring soon after 12 years as the elected public administrator.
