(6/7/15)
What is the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF)?
This paragraph is taken directly from the National Park Service website.
The LWCF Program provides matching grants to States and local governments for the acquisition and development of public outdoor recreation areas and facilities (as well as funding for shared federal land acquisition and conservation strategies). The program is intended to create and maintain a nationwide legacy of high quality recreation areas and facilities and to stimulate non-federal investments in the protection and maintenance of recreation resources across the United States.
Sounds good, doesn’t it? But it isn’t.
Why is it bad?
This Fund is just part of the ongoing effort by the Eco-left to put more land in the public domain and less in the hands of the private citizen. This in turn reduces economic activity, decreases the amount of land that can be taxed (increasing property tax rate on the remaining privately held land), makes the citizen more reliant on big government, and causes, through the law of supply and demand, the cost of land to increase.
In addition, the federal government already has more publically owned land than it can manage. According to the GAO (Government Accountability Office) the Park Service and the BLM, Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife Service are each $11 billion dollars in the red.Making this even more egregious these same agencies can, through eminent domain/condemnation, force the “sale” of private land unless Congress forbids it. When the landowner goes to court to fight eminent domain/condemnation the judge will only ask two questions:
—–1. Does the Government have the money to buy the land?
—–2. Does the Government have the authority to spend the money?
How scary is that?
Where in the Legislative Process is the LWCF?
The Land and Water Trust Fund was defeated by one vote in the Senate a few weeks ago. The land grabbers needed 60 votes but got only 59. And minority leader Harry Reid was not there. The land grabbers will try again, likely in June, in the hopes of turning the Land and Water Conservation Fund into an off-budget automatic trust fund. If this happens the fund would not need to be approved each year and would be funded in front of many important items like the military and education that must get back in line each year for funding. The size they eventually want is $3 billion per year. Over time that would be the end of rural America.
Things YOU can do to Prevent the Funding of the LWCF
1. Send this message on to your contacts.
2. Call your Senators at (202) 224-3121 and Representative 202-225-3121. Ask for the staff person who handles the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Urge your Senators and Representatives to oppose full funding for the Land and Water Conservation fund in any future votes. Urge them to Vote No on any Land Acquisition Trust Fund. Urge them put a provision in the law that stops the Federal agencies from using the LWCF or condemnation (eminent domain).
3. Send an email (see sample email/letter at bottom of this page) opposing the LWCF Trust Fund directly to the Committee at darla_ripchensky@energy.senate.gov (NOTE:there is a _ between darla and ripchensky in the email address!!!) or fax your testimony to: 202-224-6163.
The only way to stop condemnation is to get help through Congress. So, if Congress passes a huge land acquisition Trust Fund without limiting condemnation, no landowner will be safe. The same is true for miners, inholders, forest and BLM permit holders and more.
For documentation of Park Service land acquisition abuses go to www.landrights.org and watch the (Public Television) PBS Frontline Show “For the Good Of All” about Park Service land acquisition.
NOTE: This article was created by using information provided by the …
Land Rights Network
American Land Rights Association
PO Box 400, Battle Ground, WA 98604
(360) 687-3087 Fax: (360) 687-2973
Legislative Office: 507 Seward Square SE – Washington, DC 20003
