We live in a time of fierce partisan tension, but protecting the great outdoors has proven to be one issue around which our leaders can come together for a common cause. It was one year ago that the Great American Outdoors Act, the most significant conservation and recreation legislation passed in decades, was passed by Congress and then signed into law.
Nevada’s members of Congress played a key role in this victory, and this anniversary should be a cause for celebration for everyone who lives in the state and beyond.
The law is important to all of us because it fully and permanently funds the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), which protects millions of acres of our nation’s most beautiful and irreplaceable public land, including so many special places in Nevada. The law also invests billions in updating our decades-old public lands infrastructure.
In Nevada, the program has funded everything from the Humboldt–Toiyabe National Forest to Lorenzi Park in Las Vegas. Thanks to the passage of the Great American Outdoors Act, the Interior Department has budgeted $3 million this year to expand the Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge by 432 acres. This project will open up recreation opportunities and protect water that is used by the refuge’s 280 breeding, migrating and wintering bird species. And that’s not all: Nevada is now working out how best to use the nearly $4 million made available through the LWCF’s state grant program, plus potentially millions more in competitive grants. That means even more public lands projects will soon be in the works.
In addition to steady funding for conservation, the Great American Outdoors Act marks the first major infrastructure investment in public lands in more than 50 years.
Our public lands agencies, such as the National Parks Service and the Bureau of Land Management, have tens of thousands of desperately needed maintenance and repair projects. The law invests $9.5 billion over the next five years to update bridges, trails, roads, campgrounds and visitor centers.
Before the Great American Outdoors Act was passed, Environment Nevada had been working to expand permanent funding for the LWCF for several years, serving as a continual presence on Capitol Hill and in holding events in congressional districts in support of this critical public lands program.
Ultimately, the Great American Outdoors Act never would have passed without the leadership and support of lawmakers like Nevada Sens. Catherine Cortez Mastro and Jacky Rosen, and Reps. Dina Titus, Susie Lee, Steven Horsford and Mark Amodei. Along with other leaders from both sides of the aisle, a broad bipartisan group of lawmakers in Washington, D.C., put aside partisan differences and worked together to protect America’s public lands. With that in mind, the Great American Outdoors Act demonstrates that Americans, with many different political beliefs, agree on at least one thing: protecting the nation’s natural heritage is essential.
While we should celebrate this anniversary, there are necessary next steps. Congress should keep momentum going on a bipartisan conservation agenda by increasing funding for state conservation plans and reconnecting highway-crossed habitats with a national network of wildlife corridors. Americans of all stripes value the great outdoors, and our national lawmakers— starting with those from Nevada — need to keep following their lead.
Steve Blackledge is the conservation program director for Environment America and Environment Nevada.