California #SaveLWCF Our Land, Our Water, Our Heritage America's most important conservation and recreation program will expire in less than a year unless Congress acts. For 52 years, the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) has protected national parks and open spaces in every corner of the United States. But in less than 52 weeks, it could be gone forever and along with it, future protection of the places we love. LWCF has invested more than $2.4 billion over the past five decades to protect California’s iconic outdoor places, open access for hunting, fishing, hiking, and other outdoor activities, and to build close to home parks. From community playgrounds and ballfields to California’s iconic national parks, wildlife refuges, and historic sites, LWCF has protected places like Muir Woods, Joshua Tree, Lake Tahoe and the Santa Monica Mountains, the Pacific Crest Trail, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Grasslands Wildlife Management Area, Baldwin Hills, Tuolumne River Parkway, and community parks, recreational fields, and trails in communities small and large in California. California’s $92 billion outdoor recreation industry is an economic powerhouse – supporting 691,000 jobs which generate $30.4 billion in wages and salaries and produces $6.2 billion annually in state and local tax revenue. From Redwoods to Joshua Trees With LWCF, Californians have been able to protect some of our most iconic redwood forests, which attract tourists from California and around the world. Redwood National Park celebrates its 40th Anniversary in 2018, and we need LWCF to continue this legacy of conserving the redwoods, so that future generations may experience the grandeur of a towering old-growth grove. In FY18, if funded LWCF will invest an additional $6 million in Redwood National Park. LWCF has also made strategic investments totaling over $65 million to protect the California desert, from exquiste desert tortoise habitat in the Mojave National Preserve to the unique historical site that is the Samuelson’s Rocks in Joshua Tree National Park. In FY18, LWCF is slated to invest $1.4 million in the Mojave Trails National Monument. Our public lands in the desert provide a place for Californians to recreate by foot or jeep, and help Jedediah Smith RSP drive a booming recreational economy. Photo Credit: Jon Parmentier "Investing in our parks and other public lands are at the heart of getting Californians out on the trail, whether alone or with families and friends. For more than 50 years, the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) has invested over $2 billion in California national, state and local parks, as well as in local recreation fields, swimming pools, bike paths and trails. These dollars improve our quality of life, economy, health and well-being." - Kevin Cleary, CEO, Clif Bar & Company Pacific Crest Trail The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) spans 1,700 miles running the length of California and is a growing destination for both day- and long-distance hikers. Over the last 16 years, approximately $31 million from LWCF has been used to acquire and permanently protect more than 20,000 acres along the PCT in California, Oregon, and Washington. The U.S. Forest Service ranked the Trinity Divide Project, a 10,500-acre in-holding along the PCT in northern California, as a national land protection priority. If funded in FY18, $5 million would support this purchase and enhance and protection of timber lands. Hikers on the PCT Credit: Pacific Crest Trail Association #SaveLWCF to protect the places we love in California! www.lwcfcoalition.org/lwcf52weeks/ CALIFORNIA Our Land, Our Water, Our Heritage LWCF Funded Places in LWCF Success in California California The Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) has provided funding Federal Program to help protect some of California’s most special places and ensure American River recreational access for hunting, fishing and other outdoor activities. Angeles NF Antioch Dunes NWR California has received approximately $2.447 billion in LWCF funding Bitter Creek NWR over the past five decades, protecting places such as the Lake Tahoe Bizz Johnson Trail Basin, California Desert, Point Reyes National Seashore, Headwaters Humboldt County Blue Ridge NWR Forest, the San Diego and Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuges, the Bodie Bowl ACEC national forests of the Sierra Nevada. Cache Creek ACEC California Coastal NM California Desert NPs Forest Legacy Program (FLP) grants are also funded under LWCF, to California NWRs help protect working forests. The FLP cost-share funding supports California NFs California Wilderness/Catellus timber sector jobs and sustainable forest operations while enhancing Carrizo Plain NM wildlife habitat, water quality and recreation. For example, the FLP Central Valley Wetlands contributed to places such as the Jenner Headlands in Sonoma County Channel Islands NP Chuckwalla Bench ACEC and Chalk Mountain in Humboldt County. The FLP assists states and Cleveland NF private forest owners to maintain working forest lands through matching Coachella V.-Toed Lizard ACEC Coachella Valley NWR grants for permanent conservation easement and fee acquisitions, and Consumnes River Preserve has leveraged approximately $23 million in federal funds to invest in Desert Tortoise Habitat California’s forests, while protecting air and water quality, wildlife habitat, Don Edwards SF Bay NWR Dos Palmas/Salt Creek access for recreation and other public benefits provided by forests. East Mojave NSA El Dorado County LWCF state assistance grants have further supported hundreds of El Dorado NF Ellicott Slough NWR projects across California’s state and local parks including the American Golden Gate NRA River Parkway in Sacramento, Griffith Park in Los Angeles, and Colonel Grasslands WMA *Havasu NWR Allensworth State Historic Park in the Central Valley. Headwaters Conservation Humboldt-Toiyabe NF Economic Benefits Inyo NF John Muir NHS Active outdoor recreation is an important part of the California economy. Johnson Canyon ACEC The Outdoor Industry Association has found that active outdoor Joshua Tree NP recreation supports $92 billion in consumer spending in California, King Range NCA Kings Canyon NP 691,000 jobs across California which generate $30.4 billion in wages Tahoe NF/L. Tahoe Basin and salaries, and produces $6.2 billion annually in state and local tax Lacks Creek ACEC Lassen NF revenue. Further, the U.S. Census Lassen Volcanic NP reports that each year 7.4 million Los Padres NF people hunt, fish, or enjoy wildlife- Marin Islands NWR Mendocino NF watching in California, contributing Merced WSR over $8 billion in wildlife recreation Middle Fork Feather NSRR spending to the state economy. Mojave NPres Morongo Canyons Hiker on the Pacific Crest Trail, Credit: USFS Top: Channel Islands NP Credit: NPS SUPPORT PERMANENT REAUTHORIZATION AND FULL FUNDING FOR THE LAND AND WATER CONSERVATION FUND Muir Woods NM LWCF in California North Fork American River Otay Mountain *Pacific Crest NST Golden Gate National Recreation Area *Pacific NW Streams Funding from LWCF, including $4.1 million in FY11, $5 million in FY10 and $4 Panoche-Coalinga ACEC million in FY09, was leveraged with funding from private donations and other Patterson Bend/Squaw Leap MA sources to protect the 4,262 acre Rancho Corral de Tierra. Incorporating this Pechanga Historic Site Pinnacles NM land into the Golden Gate National Recreation Area created a new southern Pixley NWR gateway into the park and helped connect the Bay Area Ridge Trail with the Point Reyes NS California Coastal Trail. The project also provided permanent protection of four Potrero Creek Coastside watersheds—Denniston, San Vicente, Montara and Martini creeks— Redwood NP and preserved critical habitat for unique and endangered plants and animals. Sacramento NWR Sacramento River NWR Fiscal Year 2019 Agency Priority Project List for California San Bernardino NF San Diego NWR Agency Project Amount Delegation San Joaquin River NWR San Pablo Bay NWR Headwaters National Forest BLM $1,500,000 Feinstein, Harris/Huffman San Sebastian Marsh/San Felipe Creek Reserve ACEC Feinstein, Harris/Cook, San Felipe Creek ACEC BLM Sand to Snow National Monument $1,000,000 Santa Monica Mountains NRA Ruiz Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains NM Santa Rosa Mountains NSA/NM BLM Elkhorn Ridge $400,000 Feinstein, Harris/Huffman Seal Beach NWR Sierra Nevada Checkerboard; Feinstein, Harris/LaMalfa, Sequoia NF FS $2,500,000 Tahoe/El Dorado McClintock Sequoia NP Shasta-Trinity NF Trinity Divide-Pacific Crest National Feinstein, Harris/ FS $3,200,000 Sierra Nevada Checkerboard Scenic Trail; Shasta-Trinity Huffman, LaMalfa Six Rivers NF Feinstein, Harris/LaMalfa, Smith River NRA FS Sanhedrin; Mendocino $3,900,000 Huffman, Garamendi South Fork Eel River Wilderness Stone Lakes NWR FLP Diamond D Forest $4,000,000 Feinstein, Harris/Huffman Tijuana Slough NWR Trinity NF/Trinity National WSR The Fiscal Year 2019 President’s Budget: Upper Sacramento River ACEC Ventana Wilderness The President’s Fiscal Year 2019 Budget proposal would gut the Land and Western Riverside County Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity NRA Water Conservation Fund, reducing the program's budget by over 100% from enacted levels. Under this proposal, no projects would be funded for Federal Total $ 1,867,500,000 federal land conservation at America’s National Parks, National Forests, National Wildlife Refuges, and other public lands. State grant programs to Forest Legacy support local recreation facilities, state parks, wildlife habitat, and other Program $ 23,400,000