American Trails Executive Committee


John Favro, Chair, TrailsGuy, LLC Trails Consulting Jenny Rigby, Vice-Chair, The Acorn Group Marianne Fowler, 2nd Vice-Chair, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy Terry Hanson, Treasurer, Terry Hanson Trails Consulting Mike Passo, Executive Director


Directors


Cathy Corlett, Corlett Landscape Architecture, LLC Jim Dailey, Flake & Kelley Danielle Fowles, Tread Lightly!, Inc. Jan Hancock, Equestrian Representative Joe Taylor, Evansville Convention & Visitors Bureau Marie Walker, The Corps Network


Advisory Board


Steve Anderson, Pima County (AZ) Parks & Rec. Dept. Peter Axelson, Beneficial Designs, Inc. Roger Bell, Trails Consultant Nathan Caldwell, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service James Coffman, RLA, ASLA, Coffman Studio John R. Collins, Jr., PhD, University of North Texas Christopher Douwes, Rec. Trails Program Mgr., FHWA Troy Duffin, President, Alpine Trails, Inc. Steve Elkinton, Partnership for the National Trails System Mylon Filkins, DVM, Back Country Horsemen of America Erik Larsen, President, Rec-Creation, LLC Kay Lloyd, Past Chair, American Trails Board Stuart Macdonald, Editor, American Trails Magazine Roger Moore, Associate Professor, NC State University Gil Penalosa, 8-80 Cities Deb Salt, Bureau of Land Management Rodger Schmitt, Retired, Bureau of Land Management Michael Schuett, Assistant Professor, Texas A & M Jaime Schmidt, Trails Program Mgr., U.S. Forest Service Bob Searns, The Greenway Team, Inc. Karen Umphress, Up Outside Jim Wood, Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc.


American Trails Magazine


American Trails Magazine (ISSN 1082-8303) is the maga- zine of American Trails, the nonprofit organization dedicat- ed to quality trails and greenways within 15 minutes of every American home, school, and workplace.


Managing Editor: Stuart Macdonald Contributing Editor: Taylor Goodrich


Subscriptions are $30 per year or free with membership– see www.AmericanTrails.org/join for details.


Reprints and copies. Unless otherwise noted, articles may be copied or reprinted if credit is given to American Trails, American Trails Magazine, and the author. For reprinted arti- cles and excerpts, contact the original author or publisher.


Contributions. We welcome contributions on trails issues, advocacy, and news, either original material or suggestions from other publications. We cannot pay for submissions, but authors will receive full credit.


Advertising. For advertising rates, call (530) 605-4395.


American Trails P.O. Box 491797


Trailhead@AmericanTrails.org www.AmericanTrails.org


4 SPRING 2019 AmericanTrails.org


Redding, CA 96049-1797 Phone (530) 605-4395 Fax (530) 867-9014


Identification Statement


Publication's title and number: American Trails Magazine (ISSN 1082-8303) Issue date: April 1, 2019 Statement of frequency: Published three times a year Authorized organization's name, address, phone number: American Trails, P.O. Box 491797, Redding, CA 96049-1797 Physical address: 2400 Washington Ave., Suite 400 Redding, CA 96001 - Phone (530) 605-4395 Issue number: Volume 48 Number 1 Subscription price: $30 per year or free with membership


American Trails Magazine is included in EBSCO Publishing databases


New life for Land and Water Conservation Fund?


Congress. LWCF was reauthorized as part of the bipartisan John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act, signed into law on March 12, 2019.


A


What “permanent reauthorization” does NOT do is to establish any specific level of spending for LWCF programs, so it is still up to Congress to appropriate funds for LWCF each year. This was made very clear in the administration’s new proposal for the Department of Interior’s 2020 budget, which virtually eliminated funds for LWCF. So we will continue to bring you news on this issue.


The National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA), notes that “While the program has always been reauthorized since its inception in 1965, the lack of a permanent authorization resulted in uncertainty for many of our member agencies that rely on this funding for proj- ect implementation.” The NRPA also points out that “in the past five years, the LWCF State Assistance Program received as low as 12 per- cent of the total LWCF fund.”


The 2019 legislation, however, requires at least 40% of funds to be used by federal agencies and at least 40% to be allocated to the states. The state LWCF program provides grants for improving state, city, and county parks, acquiring open spaces, and developing recreation facilities including trails and greenways. Much like the Recreational Trails Program, each state administers these federal funds through its parks and natural resource agency.


LWCF is funded by oil and gas royalties from offshore drilling paid by companies to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. Since 1965, LWCF has received $40 billion in receipts, and $18.4 billion of that amount has been appropriated. A total of $11.2 billion went to federal land acquisition, $4.7 billion went to state grants, and $2.6 billion to other purposes.


— Stuart Macdonald, Managing Editor, American Trails Magazine


fter 50 years of providing funds for parks, trails, and land protection, the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) has finally been approved for permanent reauthorization by


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