Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2018 | 2 a.m.
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Last month, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto made an exciting announcement: Nevada received nearly $1 million from the National Park Service through the Land and Water Conservation Fund, including $318,889 to build park infrastructure for the Ice Age Fossils State Park in Clark County.
These funds were welcomed not just by the Nevada Division of State Parks that will administer the funds, but also by advocates of Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument, located next to the newly established Ice Age Fossils State Park. Tule Springs, one of Nevada’s three National Monuments, contains the single largest assemblage of Ice Age fossils in the Southwest, spanning geologic history from 7,000 to 200,000 years past. It is a continuous record found nowhere else.
Because Ice Age Fossil State Park is new, there are no visitor centers, designated trails, facilities or parking areas yet. Although there’s plenty to explore, the lack of basic amenities, like restrooms, limits how much time visitors can spend on the land. The grant provided by LWCF will help the park begin to build some of this critical infrastructure, drawing more visitors to experience these unique geologic features and ecosystems. Funds from LWCF came just in time.
Unfortunately, this may not happen again. On Sept. 30, Congress allowed the LWCF to expire.
It’s a baffling decision for Congress to make. For more than half a century, LWCF has provided matching grants to states to help fund projects in local parks and recreation areas. Nevada has received $40 million for local parks through this matching program, plus another $60 million to bolster federal public lands throughout the state. LWCF is funded through small fees levied on offshore drilling leases, so taxpayers bear no financial expense. The fund is even capped at $900 million per year.
By allowing LWCF to expire, Congress is eliminating the source for critical monies that help our state fund improvements and expansions at recreation spaces new and old. Without LWCF, Nevada would struggle to be the sole funder of the many park improvement projects we must undertake. Our state budget is already stretched thin. We count on LWCF grants to help us manage and maintain special parks and open spaces.
In fact, past funds have helped restore endangered plants and rebuild roads in the Eglington Preserve (now part of the national monument), right along where the monument’s first trail will go. Tule Springs is in its infancy, but has been eagerly anticipated by Nevadans for more than a decade. With more funding and further developments, Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument could be — will be — the kind of destination families from across the Southwest and beyond will visit. This benefits not only the national monument, but the Ice Age Fossils State Park, driving more revenue into state budgets. And as more families and students visit the fossil beds, we can connect more and more Nevadans to our shared past.
It’s a shame that Congress chose not to save LWCF by the Sept. 30 deadline. Since its inception, LWCF has enjoyed bipartisan support from lawmakers and proved overwhelmingly popular with constituents. Playing politics with such a beloved program that helps Nevada families enjoy our natural treasures is disappointing and irresponsible.
Fortunately, we have an opportunity to change this. Newly elected representatives and senators are heading to Congress, and they can take it upon themselves to do what should have been done months ago: fully and permanently reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund, America’s best conservation program. If Sen.-elect Jacky Rosen can join Cortez Masto, already a champion of LWCF, in passing this common-sense authorization, thousands of Nevada families and advocates for our parks like Tule Springs National Monument and the Ice Age Fossils State Park will be incredibly thankful.
Jill DeStefano is president of Protectors of Tule Springs, a Las Vegas-based preservation organization that supports the Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument and Ice Age Fossil State Park.
