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LWCF and Oregon’s Land Trusts
The idea behind the Land and Water Conservation Fund is simple:
a portion of revenues from offshore oil and gas development –
not taxpayer dollars – goes to protecting our outdoor heritage.
Since its inception in 1965, LWCF has invested approximately
$263 million here in Oregon. This is real money: every dollar
invested in Oregon generates $4 in economic value by expanding
public access to lakes and streams, building sports fields, trails
and local parks, conserving working forests, and protecting
Oregon icons.
Oregon’s local land trusts are critical partners in providing
landowners, public agencies, and local communities access to
funding from the Land and Water Conservation Fund. As nonprofit organizations who work with willing landowners, land
trusts help conserve key areas of our state’s special landscape
for future generations by offering creative, incentive-based
solutions for communities wishing to protect important
wildlife habitat, provide more recreational opportunities for
our children, and strengthen the viability of our productive
agricultural and forest lands.
Young fishermen with a
large steelhead on the Elk
River in Curry County, near
a 217-acre project the Wild
Rivers Land Trust is seeking
LWCF funding to conserve.
Photo by Wes Arvin,
proud father
How you can help
In 2014, the Coalition of Oregon Land Trusts
sponsored a poll in Oregon, revealing broad
statewide support for LWCF funding:
Land & Water Conservation Fund
Advancing Land Trust Projects Across Oregon
If you have ever fished the Rogue River, hiked in the Three
Sisters Wilderness or hunted in the Mt Hood National
Forest, you know first hand that Oregon would not be the
same without America’s premier conservation program,
the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). However,
without additional action by Congress, this important
source of conservation funding will expire in 2015. Learn
about this critical program and how it benefits Oregon’s land
trusts, local communities, and voluntary land conservation
opportunities across the state.
Photo of Mill Creek and Mt. Hood by Columbia Land Trust
Nearly nine in 10 Oregonians (89%)
support the continued use of these
offshore oil and gas drilling fees
to finance the Land and Water
Conservation Fund.
Nationally, there is a growing voice of outdoor
recreational groups, businesses, conservation
organizations, and policy makers calling for full
and continued funding for LWCF in future budgets.
The Land and Water Conservation Fund is doubly at risk: Congress continues
to divert almost 50% of the $900 million allocated for conservation to
unrelated projects. In addition, unless Congress acts, LWCF is set to expire in
2015. Losing this source of funding to inaction would be a great misfortune
for Oregon.
To help ensure the Land and Water Conservation Fund is given full funding,
and continues to support conservation in Oregon, we need to tell our federal
delegation how important this critical source of funding is.
Go to www.oregonlandtrusts.org/lwcf to find out more of how you can help.
The Coalition of Oregon Land Trusts is the only
association of land trusts in Oregon, where it serves as
a statewide service center and the central voice of the
land trust community. From the Columbia River corridor
to our coastal wildlife refuges, from the eastern plains to
Willamette Valley oak savannas, the member land trusts
of COLT work with landowners and local communities to
conserve the natural, social and economic values that
make Oregon so special.
322 NW 5th Ave, Suite 312 • Portland, OR 97209
503.719.4732
[email protected]
oregonlandtrusts.org
Tenmile Creek
The projects highlighted here
represent some of the current
and proposed future LWCF
projects for our member land
trusts in Oregon.
Future Project: These 55 acres of forest and
meadow land just north of Florence are
bisected by Tenmile Creek, one of the most
productive coastal mid-coast streams in
Oregon. With spawning habitat for coho,
steelhead, Chinook, lamprey, as well as
important elk habitat, this property is a
regional priority for the U.S. Forest Service
and their Pacific Northwest Streams program,
which hopes to use LWCF funding to acquire
the property in partnership with the McKenzie
River Trust (MRT). The property adjoins
existing Forest Service land, as well as private
lands already under conservation through
conservation easements held by MRT.
Gilchrist Forest
Current Project: This 26,000 acre parcel will be added
to the newly created Gilchrist State Forest and will be
managed for sustainable forestry and public recreation
while generating significant revenue for Klamath County.
Because of its close proximity to Bend and current
zoning, the property is under threat of parcelization and
development. The Conservation Fund has been working
closely with the Oregon Department of Forestry over the
last number of years to conserve this large, important
landscape for future public enjoyment.
Photo by Doug Decker, Oregon Dept. of Forestry
Photo by McKenzie River Trust staff
LWCF Programs, Projects and Funding
LWCF contains a few programs, each focusing on
specific conservation priorities that allow for diverse,
community-based projects across the state. Although
the LWCF is allocated $900 million every year from
oil and gas drilling fees, Congress continues to divert
nearly half of the money away from conservation
projects to unrelated spending.
Pathways to the Pacific Collaborative
Landscape Proposal
Future Project: This proposal would result in the conservation of
over 43,000 acres along the last 250 miles of the lower Columbia
River before it enters the Pacific Ocean: from the dry east
Cascades, through the Columbia River Gorge, the Willamette
Valley and the Portland Metro Area, the Columbia River Estuary
to the Pacific Ocean. The projects will tie together a network of
other lands conserved and restored by federal, state and local
agencies and private non-profit partners, including the Columbia
Land Trust and the Friends of the Columbia Gorge Land Trust.
The LWCF funding would be leveraged by millions contributed by
other sources.
Photo by Albert Bernstein
The Forest Legacy Program, administered under the
LWCF, provides critical funding to protect working
forests in Oregon. This fund is at risk every year, with
only 25% of the demonstrated need funded annually.
Upper Klamath Lake
Future Project: Funding through LWCF’s Forest
Legacy Program will enable this local landowner to
complete a 500-acre wetland conservation easement
with the Klamath Lake Land Trust. This priority
project is home to a mixed-conifer forest, wetlands,
four-miles of lakeshore, and federally endangered
Short-Nose and Lost River sucker fish, both of which
have major cultural importance to the Klamath
Tribes. LWCF funding will help in the restoration of
the wetlands and over two-miles of stream habitat
for the benefit of the sucker fish; the aquatic
habitats on the property are critical if populations
are to be recovered.
Photo by Cam Curtis
The Federal Land Protection Program provides funding
for the development and safeguarding of our national
parks, cultural sites such as Civil War battlefields, and
expanding outdoor recreational opportunities in the
west and here in Oregon.
The State Assistance Program provides matching
grants to local governments for state parks, trails
development, and natural and water resource
protection.
The Cooperative Endangered Species Program provides
federal, state, and local governments important
funding for proactive, incentive-based conservation to
meet the requirements of the Endangered Species Act.