Since I was a young man in the Boy Scouts, canoe trips, hunting and camping in the swamps and rivers of southeastern Virginia and northeast North Carolina have been an integral part of my life. Being in nature in places such as Virginia’s Appalachian Mountains has forever been a way of clearing my mind and bringing the present moment into focus. After my military service, I again learned to let these same wild spaces reconnect me — to my family, my country and my fellow veterans.
These days I am saddened to hear that so many of these treasured natural spaces are continually being threatened by political delays, specifically by a divisive Congress that continually shortchanges the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
Since 1964, LWCF has been expanding, maintaining and protecting public projects and spaces across all 50 states. In Virginia alone, the program has invested $360.8 million in projects like the popular Appalachian National Scenic Trail, the Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge just south of Sandbridge, and the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in Chesapeake and Suffolk.
LWCF has received bi-partisan support since its inception, and the non-partisan projects that are funded reflect that combined support. Moreover, the fund costs taxpayers absolutely nothing, receiving its money from royalties paid by oil and gas companies for offshore drilling leases. That money is then reinvested in all kinds of outdoor and heritage projects on the federal, state and local levels, from battlefield restoration to ballpark construction to waterway maintenance.
It made perfect sense for Congress to vote for permanent reauthorization of LWCF in March, but that remarkable and long-awaited action didn’t go far enough. No set funding amount was stipulated, meaning that some of the $900 million per year originally authorized by Congress to protect our natural spaces can still be siphoned off to fund other bureaucratic initiatives, as it has happened for over 50 years. In fact, the White House budget proposal from last March sought to cut the fund by 105%. That’s right: less than zero for public lands.
Thankfully, Congress thwarted those intentions and LWCF has been funded for $495 million in FY 2020, $57 million more than last year. But that still means the fund is short-changed, with nearly half of the money diverted elsewhere to non-conservation-related projects.
There is, however, legislation currently under consideration in the House and Senate to permanently fund LWCF at the full amount, and these bills are where we must now place our focus to ensure that LWCF funds will finally be used entirely for their intended purpose.
I have great hope for full funding when I see how much work folks such as my own representative, Elaine Luria, are putting in to preserve the projects and places Virginians cherish. It makes me confident that other representatives and senators will recognize the immeasurable value of the program and vote for full LWCF funding.
The natural lands and waterways of this country have been a part of every major milestone of my life — from childhood to military service and beyond, and most recently a retreat for my honeymoon. Perhaps one of my favorite outdoor moments occurred during Thanksgiving break several years ago. We loaded up 10 adults, nine children, 12 dogs and camping gear into canoes and headed for an old Cypress swamp. We smoked turkeys and rabbits over the campfire for a memorable feast in the woods. That Thanksgiving we discovered a deeper understanding of the relationship between our founders and the land they made into America — land that has served generations of Americans since the original Thanksgiving in 1619.
As we begin this next decade, I urge us all to be grateful for the land and water that provides us with so much and to those organizations and lawmakers with a firm commitment to keep our special places open to future generations. I call on my fellow veterans, parents and Virginians to contact their representatives and demand immediate and permanent full funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund so that we all may better connect with nature and have memorable Thanksgiving meals for generations to come.
James Barry is a U.S. Army veteran and a resident of Virginia Beach.
