Tennessee Our Land, Our Water, Our Heritage

LWCF Success in LWCF Funded Places in Tennessee The Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) has provided funding to Federal Units help protect some of Tennessee’s most special places and ensure • *Appalachian NST recreational access for hunting, fishing and other outdoor activities. • Big South Fork NRRA Tennessee has received approximately $223.3 million in LWCF funding • Cherokee NF over the past five decades, protecting places such as Chickamauga- • Chickamauga/Chattanooga Chattanooga National Military Park, , NMP Chickasaw and Shiloh National Military Park. • Chickasaw NWR • Cumberland Gap NHP • Fort Donelson NB Forest Legacy Program (FLP) grants are also funded under LWCF, to • *Great Smoky Mountains NP help protect working forests. The FLP cost-share funding supports • Lower Hatchie NWR timber sector jobs and sustainable forest operations while enhancing • Moccasin Bend wildlife habitat, water quality and recreation. For example, the FLP • Obed WSR contributed to places such as the Cumberland Mountain in Franklin • Overmountain Victory NHT • Reelfoot NWR County and Chickamauga Creek in Marion County. The FLP matching • Shiloh NMP grants for permanent conservation easement and fee acquisitions, and • Stones River NB has leveraged approximately $33.2 million in federal funds to invest in • Tennessee NWR Tennessee’s forests, while protecting air and water quality, wildlife habitat, access for recreation and other public benefits provided by Federal Total $99,300,000 forests. State Programs LWCF state assistance grants have further supported hundreds of Forest Legacy $33,200,000 projects across Tennessee’s state and local parks including Big Hill Pond Program State Park in McNairy County, Fall Creek Falls State Park, Panther Creek Habitat $3,900,000 State Park in Hamblen County and Roan Mountain State Park in Carter Conservation County. Additionally, the Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership (Sec. 6) Program (ORLP), which funds city park projects in economically American $5,700,000 disadvantaged areas, supported Douglass Park in Memphis. Battlefield Protection Economic Benefits Program Active outdoor recreation is an important part of Tennessee’s ORLP $485,000 economy. The Bureau of Economic Analysis has found that outdoor Stateside $80,700,000 recreation generates $7.3 billion in value added to Tennessee’s economy, 101,033 homegrown jobs, and accounts for 2.1% of the Total $223,300,000 state’s economy. Further, the U.S. Census reports that each year 2.8 *multistate project million people hunt, fish, or enjoy wildlife-watching in Tennessee, contributing over $2.3 billion in wildlife recreation spending to the state economy.

Note - All approximate totals derived from appropriations bills Top: Great Smoky Mountains NP Credit: NPS - Forest Legacy Program & Sec. 6 funded from LWCF starting in 2004 LWCF in Tennessee Chickamauga-Chattanooga National Military Park Created at the request of Civil War veterans in 1890, this park protects important Civil War sites in and around the city of Chattanooga, including Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Moccasin Bend, and the Chickamauga Battlefield. LWCF investments of more than $10 million - through National Park Service land acquisition inside the park and using American Battlefield Protection Program grants outside the park boundaries - have ensured the permanent protection of important historic sites that are also part of Chattanooga’s enviable network of open space. Protected lands that have benefited from LWCF funds include the sites of several key battles fought during a pivotal period in late 1863: Billy Goat Hill, where Union General William T. Sherman camped before the Battle of Missionary Ridge; a portion of the Wauhautchie Battlefield; and multiple properties on Lookout Mountain, LWCF is a simple idea: that a site of the famed “Battle Above the Clouds.” portion of offshore drilling fees should be used to protect Fiscal Year 2021 Agency Priority Project List for Tennessee important land and water for all Americans. These are not Agency Project Amount Delegation taxpayer dollars. NPS Shiloh NMP $558,000 Alexander, Blackburn/Green Unfortunately, for 55 years Big South Fork National River & Alexander, the promise of LWCF was NPS $1,037,000 broken as $22 billion was Recreation Area* Blackburn/Fleischmann, Rose diverted from the program. NPS Fort Donelson NB $559,000 Alexander, Blackburn/Green The Great American Alexander, NPS Stones River NB $243,000 Outdoors Act ended the Blackburn/DesJarslais diversion and ensures that Tennessee Mountain Trails & Alexander, Blackburn/Roe, FS $920,250 LWCF ‘s permanently Waters; Cherokee Fleishchmann authorized $900 million is FLP Myers Cove $1,800,000 Alexander, Blackburn/ Rose used for conservation and recreation projects each year.

LWCF supports the acquisition of land and conservation easements to protect our national parks, wildlife refuges, forests, trails, and BLM sites, grants funds to the states for local and state park needs, protects critical wildlife habitat, watersheds and Status of the Land and Water Conservation Fund recreational access, and In 2019, permanent authorization of LWCF was secured as part of S. 47, the conserves working farms, John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act. Passage of ranches and forestlands that the Dingell Act ensures that LWCF no longer faces the uncertainty of potential enhance local economies. expiration, and that the unique structure and inflow of funds to LWCF is protected. Then in 2020 permanent full funding for LWCF was enacted into law in the Great American Outdoors Act– ensuring that each year the $900 million deposited into the LWCF account actually goes towards conservation and recreation priorities. Over the previous 55 years of the program, more than $22 billion was diverted from LWCF to other, unknown purposes. That meant that our public lands, waters, and historic sites were put in peril. As open space continues to shrink, LWCF investments become even more critical to providing the outdoor opportunities for all future generations. Click here to www.lwcfcoalition.org view a map of future LWCF projects.

For more information: Big South Fork NRRA, Credit: NPS Amy Lindholm, [email protected] *Multistate project