Massachusetts to receive $2 million from the Land & Water Conservation Fund
WASHINGTON, DC – April 20, 2016 – (RealEstateRama) — U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell has announced that Massachusetts will receive $2 million in funding from the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). The funding is part of $95 million in LWCF funds being distributed to all 50 states.
The LWCF is an instrumental conservation program that GOP leaders allowed to expire last year. Congresswoman Tsongas, the top Democrat on the Natural Resources Federal Lands Subcommittee, was unwilling to see the program terminated, and helped lead a successful effort to reauthorize the program for three years.
“LWCF has proven to be a critical tool to protect some of our nation’s most significant cultural and historic sites – many right here in Massachusetts – protecting places that have shaped and defined who we are as a people, and a country, and would not have been protected without support from the federal government,” said Rep. Tsongas. “We all have a responsibility to help preserve our nation’s treasures for our children and grandchildren, and the Land and Water Conservation Fund is instrumental in this effort, which is why I so strongly advocated for its reauthorization over the past year. LWCF has made a significant difference in communities around Massachusetts and the Third District, and will continue to do so with this announcement. I look forward to working with my colleagues to further support the LWCF and permanently reauthorize this important conservation program.”
For over 50 years, the Land and Water Conservation Fund has carried out a simple bipartisan idea: use revenues from the depletion of one federal resource, offshore oil and gas, to conserve another, our land and water, and provide recreation opportunities for all Americans. It does not cost taxpayer money or contribute to the Federal deficit, relying instead on royalties paid by oil and gas companies in exchange for their right to develop offshore resources in waters that belong to all of the American people.
In February, President Barack Obama requested full funding and permanent reauthorization for the LWCF in his FY2017 budget
