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Conservation Advocates Work to Keep National Fund Alive

S Bence

The Land and Water Conservation Fund, according to Dick Steffes is “probably the most important land protection program that people have never heard of.”

In case you don’t know Dick Steffes, he worked nearly 40 years in various capacities with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources - from land acquisition agent to real estate director. Steffes has received many awards for his work, including from the National Geographic Society and U.S. Forest Service.

As for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, it was signed into law by President Johnson in 1964.

Steffes describes the time as an era of environmental awareness, “he signed a bill that formed the Wildnerness Act at the same time. It was a great time for recognizing the importance of some of our most precious places.”

The Fund is fueled by lease revenues for offshore drilling in the Gulf Coast area.

Steffes says it’s not tax dollars, “and I think that is an important take away. The Fund is a mitigation for removal of one resource – fossil fuels – and we’re using some of those dollars for land protections.”

Such as adding to the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone and national battlefields.

Steffes says over its 50 year history, the Land and Water Conservation Fund has been used in 98 percent of the counties throughout the United States. In Wisconsin, that includes helping to fund:

Brule-St. Croix Legacy Forest is Wisconsin’s largest conservation project. It conserves a sustainably managed working forest, while folding in public access to 40 miles of multi-use trails, clean water, small lakes and key habitat.

Chippewa Flowage in Sawyer County conserves 10,083 acres of forestlands surrounding the popular Chippewa Flowage, one of the state’s wildest lakes and trophy fisheries.

The Ice Age Scenic Trailtraces the edge of the last glacier that covered North America, stretching more than more than 1,000 miles through Wisconsin,

But, without Congressional action, the fund will dissolve, “it’s slated to expire the end of next year,” Steffes says.

He’s a member of the Land and Water Conservation Fund Coalition, working to raise awareness and support for the Fund’s renewal. Steffes says the group also wants to see the resource fully funded.

Although the law that formed it, allocated an annual conservation budget of $900,000 “only once in 50 years has it been that high; what happens is they are siphoned off for other things. So it’s a good plan, but it’s never met its target expect for one year.”

Steffes believes strong public support can make it happen.

“We’re hoping that the citizenry would contact their Congressmen and their U.S. Senators; tell them that they value this and ask them to work, as a lawmaker, to look for renewal and more fully fund the program.”

Susan is WUWM's environmental reporter.<br/>