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California Wild Lands Need Your Help
Across the country, lands with exceptional recreation and conservation value are at risk to development. In California, the Big Sur Ecosystem (Rancho Calera) and Carrizo Plain National Monument projects need your help.
Congress has provided the mechanism for acquiring such lands but not the money. Please write your members of Congress today and urge them to support specific funding for these projects.
| Sample Letter for Campaign |
Subject: Please secure funding for these land conservation projects
Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,
Please do all you can to secure funding for several critically important land conservation projects in California. Here, as elsewhere around the country, precious wild lands are at risk to development. These lands in their natural condition are irreplaceable. If we let them slip away, our children will be the poorer for it.
There are two California projects that urgently need funding from the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) in the 2007 Interior Appropriations bill: $2,000,000 for the Big Sur Ecosystem (Rancho Calera Phase I) project; and $500,000 for a project in Carrizo Plain National Monument.
In addition to securing specific funding for these projects, please help ensure that the Land and Water Conservation Fund's federal land acquisition program remains strong and is fully funded at $450 million. Adequate funding for land acquisition is the key to effectively protecting our most vulnerable and important national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, monuments, wilderness areas and other special public lands.
I also urge you to strongly support $80 million in funding for the Forest Legacy program. That money will help conserve important privately owned forest lands from inappropriate development.
An essential quality in Americans is love of the land. These wild and vulnerable places need our help and protection now. Your leadership can help ensure that the Interior Appropriations bill includes sufficient LWCF and Forest Legacy funding to guarantee the future of these lands.
Sincerely,
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Campaign Launched:
April 24, 2006
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Land and Water Conservation Fund & Forest Legacy Program
In 1964, Congress made a remarkably farsighted investment in America’s public lands by creating the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). Since its inception, LWCF money has protected more than 7 million acres of important open space and has been instrumental in providing nearly 40,000 public park and recreation areas nationwide.
But for LWCF to work, Congress must act each year to appropriate money in the Interior Appropriations bill for critical projects. Money is tight this year. That’s been the pattern over the last four years and LWCF funding has declined sharply. The President’s Fiscal Year 2007 budget proposes the lowest funding in well over a decade.
Forests for the Future
The Forest Legacy program complements LWCF by helping states conserve privately owned forest from inappropriate development so they can continue to provide clean water and wildlife habitat.
Funding for Forest Legacy, too, falls far short of need: the President has proposed $61.5 million for the program in the coming year, but 43 states have submitted requests for $200 million to fund 91 projects.
If we don’t protect these beautiful, threatened places this year, we may lose them forever. It’s crucial that both the House and Senate provide adequate funding for these priority LWCF and Forest Legacy programs and projects. But that won’t happen unless we let our members of Congress know how important these lands are to us.
Please Take Action Today!
In California, two projects need our help: Big Sur Ecosystem (Rancho Calera Phase I) and Carrizo Plain National Monument. Please ask your Members of Congress to support specific funding for their acquisition. You can send that message now from the previous page.
If you can find the time, please personalize your letter; that will carry much more weight with your elected officials. Click here to find out more information about the Alabama projects. (Once there, click on the appropriate fact sheet, which are listed by state and then project names.)
Contact Information
Click here to find the names and addresses of your members of Congress.
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