Statement from Robert Bendick, Director of U.S. Government Relations for The Nature Conservancy, on President Obama’s FY12 Budget Request

The Nature Conservancy commends the Fiscal Year 2012 budget request released by the Obama administration today, which proposes important investments in our nation’s land and water, as well as for outdoor recreation and the working farms and ranches that support local economies.

The 2012 federal budget request, for the year that begins Oct. 1, recommends full funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). The request for $900 million for LWCF, the program’s authorized funding level, clearly shows the importance of protecting our national and local forests and parks, coastlines and water resources, wildlife and recreation areas, and the working lands that sustain us. It also underscores the need to focus federal government dollars on the most efficient and effective programs that can protect the highest priority natural areas.

LWCF does not use taxpayer dollars – it is already paid for through a percentage of revenues from offshore oil and gas development to balance the use of those natural resources by protecting important land and water elsewhere. Offshore oil and gas fees typically average more than $6 billion annually, but in the past, most of the funds promised for LWCF have been diverted elsewhere, with Congress rarely fulfilling the full funding level over the program’s 45-year history.