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America’s Best Parks Program

America’s Best Parks Program

The 50-year old Land and Water Conservation Fund, America's most successful parks and outdoor recreation program, will disappear soon unless Congress acts.

Celebrating 50 Years Of The Land and Water Conservation Fund

Fifty years ago this week, President Lyndon Johnson signed into law what has gone on to be the nation’s most effective program for creating and protecting our treasured national parks and wildlife refuges, public lands and state and local parks and recreation projects. The Land and Water Conservation Fund, or LWCF, has supported more than 40,000 outdoor recreation projects and helped protect more than 7 million acres of land. Every dollar invested in land conservation through the LWCF creates $4 in economic value. And it is funded not by taxpayer dollars but by revenues from offshore oil and gas development.

The fund is set to expire in 2015. We need action by Congress to make sure it continues beyond then to be the great parks program it has been.

See how it works — courtesy of our colleagues at the Center for American Progress — below:

lwcf

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