Land Conservation Financing

Mike McQueen, Edward T. McMahon, The Conservation Fund

• Publisher: Island Press
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781559634816
• eBook ISBN: 9781610914741
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Environmental Law
• Index: Law

Written by two of the nation's leading experts on land conservation, Land Conservation Financing provides a comprehensive overview of successful land conservation programs -- how they were created, how they are funded, and what they've accomplished -- along with detailed case studies from across the United States.

The authors present important new information on state-of-the-art conservation financing, showcasing programs in states that have become the nation's leaders in open-space protection: California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and New Jersey. They look at key local land protection efforts by examining model programs in DeKalb County, Georgia; Douglas County, Colorado; Jacksonville, Florida; Lake County, Illinois; Lancaster County, Pennsylvania; Marin County, California; the St. Louis metro area in Missouri and Illinois, and on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

The authors then examine how hundreds of communities have created hundreds of millions of dollars in funding by developing successful campaigns to win land conservation ballot measures. They offer case studies and pull together lessons learned as they lay out how to run a successful campaign. The authors also consider the role of private foundations, which have made immense contributions to land conservation over the past two decades.

The book concludes with an examination of the emerging concept of green infrastructure -- a strategic approach to conservation that involves planning and managing a network of parks, natural areas, greenways, and working lands that can help support native species, maintain ecological processes, and contribute to the health and quality of life for America's people and its communities.

Land Conservation Financing is an indispensable resource for land conservationists in the public and private sectors who are looking for a detailed, national portrait of the state of land conservation in America today.

CHAPTER 1

PROTECTING OPEN SPACE

A generation ago, talk of spending over $1 billion to protect important open space in the United States was the stuff of dreams. Congress passed the 1964 Land and Water Conservation Fund Act (LWCF) with the idea that $100 million or $200 million of federal funding annually would suffice to revolutionize the availability of parks and open space across America.

Flash forward to the dawn of the twenty-first century. From 1998 through 2002, voters in states and local communities across the United States approved 670 ballot measures to spend more than $25 billion on parks and open space (see Table 1.1). And in March 2002, California voters approved a huge $2.6 billion park and environmental bond issue, the largest such bond in the nation’s history. Remarkably, support for the bond was widespread across ethnic, racial, economic, and educational levels, with overwhelming majorities of whites, blacks, Latinos, and Asians backing the measure. Heeding the call of the grassroots groundswell of support for land conservation, Congress has boosted LWCF funding since fiscal year 2000, particularly for state grants, after two decades of neglect.

Clearly, public financing to acquire and protect parks and open space has experienced a sea change. Land protection is now big business. The dollar figures involved are huge, and land development pressures have never been greater. At the same time, the variety of land conservation financing tools available from Main Street to the U.S. Capitol continues to expand.

TABLE 1.1.

State and local land conservation ballot measures, 1998–2002

Sources: Adapted from Land Trust Alliance, 1998, 1999, and 2000 Referenda Results; and Trust for Public Land and Land Trust Alliance, LandVote 2001 and LandVote 2002.

Land Conservation Financing profiles some of the nation’s best land conservation programs located in eight states—California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and New Jersey. As these forward-looking states have created impressive state land conservation financing programs, citizens and legislators in counties, cities, and towns across the United States have responded in kind. They have approved local ballot measures to leverage the state funding by dedicating sales taxes, property taxes, and other local revenue sources to boost the state land conservation efforts at the local level.

The Land and Water Conservation Fund

Although state and local governments have set aside land for parks and recreation for a very long time, the modern movement to protect open space can be traced to a little-known report, Outdoor Recreation for America, released in January 1962 by the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission. The fifteen-member commission, created in 1958 by Congress and President Dwight D. Eisenhower and chaired by Laurance Rockefeller, requested that a federal funding program should be established to provide grants to states that would stimulate and assist them to meet new demands for outdoor recreation and to pay for additions to the federal recreation estate.

The commission owed its birth to forces in American society unleashed after World War II.¹ From the end of the war into the 1950s, the United States witnessed a swift expansion in the demand for outdoor recreation. The baby boom and rapid urbanization coupled with increases in disposable income, leisure time, and mobility coalesced into a national awareness that the nation needed more access to parks, open space, and other areas for outdoor recreation.

Spurred by the commission’s recommendations, President John F. Kennedy on February 14, 1963, proposed the creation of a Land and Water Conservation Fund. In a letter to Congress accompanying the legislation, Kennedy wrote:

The Nation needs a land acquisition program to preserve both prime Federal and State areas for outdoor recreation purposes. The growth of our cities, the development of our industry, the expansion of our transportation systems—all manifestations of our vigorous and expanding society—preempt irreplaceable lands of natural beauty and unique recreation value. In addition to the enhancement of spiritual, cultural, and physical values resulting from the preservation of these resources, the expenditures for their preservation are a sound financial investment. Public acquisition costs can become multiplied and even prohibitive with the passage of time.²

After Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson urged speedy approval of the bill, which received broad bipartisan support. Congress approved the legislation in the late summer of 1964 and sent the bill to the president, who signed it into law on September 3, 1964, as Public Law 88–578.

The law establishing the Land and Water Conservation Fund stipulated that up to 60 percent of all appropriations for the fund could be devoted to the new state grant program, but at least 40 percent should be set aside for federal land acquisition. Congress tapped four sources of revenue to fund the program: (1) the sale of surplus federal property, (2) an existing motor boat fuel tax, (3) a new system of entrance and recreation user fees at national parks and on other federal lands, and (4) annual appropriations of $60 million a year for eight years, which were to be paid back. Because the user fees never raised more than $16 million in the early years, Congress bolstered the original funding sources in 1968 by including a portion of federal revenue from offshore oil and gas drilling, which has become the key funding source for the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Congress saw its use of offshore drilling revenue as a means to recycle money generated from a depleting natural resource to rejuvenate other natural resources. Lawmakers increased the program’s authorized funding level to $200 million a year in FY 1969, $300 million in FY 1971, and $900 million in FY 1978, where it stands as of 2003.

Four decades after its creation, the impact of this program can be seen in every county and major city in America.³ Millions of acres of recreation land in the United States—from parks and playgrounds in every state and territory to the magnificent national parks spanning the country from Cape Cod to Point Reyes—owe their existence to the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act. From FY 1965 through FY 2002, Congress appropriated $11.8 billion from the Land and Water Conservation Fund to provide monies for federal acquisition of park and recreation lands and matching grants to state and local governments for recreation planning, land acquisition, and park development.

All or a major part of dozens of our national parks and forests, wildlife refuges, and river and trail systems were acquired through the $8.2 billion that Congress has devoted to federal acquisitions under the Land and Water Conservation Fund program. In addition to creating new protected areas, the fund has helped expand existing areas through acquisitions of key recreation and conservation sites in almost every national forest and wildlife refuge east of the Rocky Mountains (see Box 1.1 ). Through FY 2001, over 4.5 million acres of federal land have been protected through the program.

Besides the federal acquisitions, from FY 1965 through FY 2002, Congress also appropriated $3.6 billion in grants to state and local governments to plan, acquire, and develop park and recreation land. These grants leveraged an additional $3.6 billion in state and local matching funds that acquired more than 2.3 million acres of recreation land, funded 37,000 state and local projects, and developed 27,000 recreational facilities spread throughout every county, state, and territory in the nation.

Although Congress authorized a spending level of $900 million a year for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, actual annual appropriations have never approached the authorized amount (see Figure 1.1).

BOX 1.1.

Sampling of public land acquired with Land and Water Conservation Fund appropriations from FY 1965 through FY 2000

In addition to grants to state and local governments, the Land and Water Conservation Fund has provided more than $8.2 billion to acquire new federal recreation lands. Following are some of the areas added to national park, forest, wildlife refuge, river, and trail systems from FY 1965 through FY 2000 for which all or a major part of land purchases were funded by the federal side of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. In addition to new areas, the fund has helped expand existing areas through acquisition of key recreation and conservation sites in almost every national forest and wildlife refuge east of the Rocky Mountains.

Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, Wisconsin

Appalachian National Scenic Tra...

Table of contents

• About Island Press
• About The Conservation Fund
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• FOREWORD BY LARRY SELZER, PRESIDENT OF THE CONSERVATION FUND
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• CHAPTER 1 - PROTECTING OPEN SPACE
• CHAPTER TWO - FINANCING STATE LAND CONSERVATION PROGRAMS
• CHAPTER THREE - FINANCING LOCAL LAND CONSERVATION PROGRAMS
• CHAPTER FOUR - CREATING LOCAL CONSERVATION FUNDING
• CHAPTER FIVE - CONSERVING LAND WITH PRIVATE-SECTOR FUNDING
• CHAPTER SIX - FINANCING GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE: SMARTER, MORE COST-EFFECTIVE LAND CONSERVATION
• CHAPTER SEVEN - PROTECTING LAND CONSERVATION FUNDING IN TOUGH ECONOMIC TIMES
• NOTES
• APPENDIX A - STATE CONSERVATION FUNDING MECHANISMS
• APPENDIX B - USEFUL WEB SITES
• SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
• INDEX
• Island Press Board of Directors