On Tuesday, ConservAmerica hosted another edition of our ongoing webinar series, this time dealing with the Great American Outdoors Act, which is set for a Senate vote next week. The panel was hosted by ConservAmerica’s Brent Fewell, and featured Collin O’Mara, President of the National Wildlife Foundation, Brian Yablonski, CEO of PERC, and Christy Plumer, Chief Conservation Officer with the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. And we were thrilled to be joined by two of the legislation’s authors, Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Senator Cory Gardner (R-CO).
Senator Manchin: “Now is the Time to Tell Them to Step Up.”
Senator Manchin began the webinar by providing some background on the legislation and discussing the political outlook ahead of next week’s vote. He cast the bill as a robust response to the pandemic and the need for economic recovery.
“The new reality only brings into sharper focus why it is so important for us to enact the Great American Outdoors Act,” the senator explained, “there is no other piece of legislation that I know that would do more to kick start the economy.”
The bill provides full and permanent funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) as well as addressing the billions of dollars of backlogged national park maintenance projects. He said that in the 55 years since the LWCF was established, it has only been fully funded twice. Securing the funding is critical because $22 billion has been deposited into the LWCF, but was never actually appropriated for LWCF purposes. In recent years, it has averaged about half of the funding level.
“Last year, the Senate passed the public lands package by an overwhelming vote of 92-8…to think within the short period of time we’re able to get full authorization and full funding, is an unbelievable task that I never thought would happen as quickly as it did,” he said. “But we knew once we got authorization, we had to start immediately for the funding—if not, we would miss that momentum that we had.”
Senator Manchin claims that a key to quickly moving the bill forward was ensuring that it would not be bogged down by amendments and pet projects, noting that he even chose to forgo a national park designation for his own state. Furthermore, there were a lot of other senators who supported the Restore Our Parks bill but who may not have supported LWCF, which is why they merged both bills.
“If you want to jumpstart the economy, we know it will work, that’s where you start. It means something in every state—more jobs,” he said, calling the bill a “once in a lifetime chance.”
He believes the bill’s chances are very good, but they need to work hard to get it across the finish line.
“I know right now we have 59 cosponsors,” Senator Manchin said, “59 doesn’t pass. It’s one short; so that’s our work cut out for us between now and when it hits the floor. So anything you all can do, it’s been unbelievable the amount of people that’ve come together—we have 800 different organizations that are supporting us. It’s unheard of.”
“Now is the time to tell them to step up,” he said. “We need them. This time might never pass again.”
He concluded by saying that, “If you’re a person who basically understands the quality of life that nature gives us and the good Lord has presented us, but also the economic opportunities it presents also, that it’s a win-win.”
Senator Gardner: “This is Going to Be Something to Help Heal America”
Senator Gardner began by noting the importance of the outdoor economy in Colorado, which generates $28 billion a year. He said nationally, five million jobs are supported by outdoor recreation, and the fund will create well over 100,000 jobs on the parks side alone.
“This is going to give people that opportunity to continue working in the great outdoors and getting back on their feet economically as we restore our greatest spaces and as we protect them for generations to come,” he said.
“Whether you consider yourself in the hook-and bullet-crowd, whether you consider yourself in the hiking crowd, whether you consider yourself in the ranching and grazing side, there is something for every single person in this bill.”
Like Senator Manchin, Senator Gardner stressed the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity the legislation represents.
“We are days away from our first vote, and some of us thought this might not ever happen… we’re going to be able to tell our children and grandchildren, when the moment counted we rose to the occasion and made sure that land is there for generation to come.”
O’Mara asked the senator how they could help ensure it passes. Senator Gardner said if viewers live in a state where the senator is not a cosponsor, they should contact their office as soon as possible.
Senator Gardner finished by acknowledging the ongoing pandemic and social unrest, but said, “This is going to be something to help heal America.”
Experts Provide Additional Insight
The panelists discussed the points made by Senators Manchin and Gardner, as well as other aspects of the legislation.
“At the end of the day, a lot of folks are trying to find common ground. If history is any guide, we can put a lot of people back to work through conservation,” O’Mara said, noting that there are over 40 million Americans unemployed and 7.7 million Americans under 30 who are out of work.
“We know that conservation is a way to put a lot of people to work very quickly, and it’s one of the most cost-effective ways to do so because most of the money goes into labor as opposed to materials and equipment.”
Yablonski discussed the maintenance backlog, describing the current situation as “upside down.” He believes that while we don’t necessarily need more land, “we definitely need to fix and care for the land we own right now.”
He added that the problem with deferred maintenance is cyclical—annual maintenance that’s not addressed when it is su
pposed to keeps getting rolled in, and the backlog is now four times the size of the national parks’ annual budget.
He recalled a study by the Congressional Research Service that showed the over the last decade, the parks’ construction budget was falling at an inflation-adjusted annual rate of 4.3 percent at the same time that 23 new park units were added. He also noted that there has been a surge in attendance, and the National Park Service can’t keep up with the extra wear and tear without this legislation.
Plumer discussed her organization’s reverence for the original vision of the 20th Century naturalists and emphasized access to our federal lands. She mentioned that, without the necessary funding, our parks might end up like Europe’s, “where private landowners were the ones who could go to hunt and fish, and if you weren’t a private landowner, you didn’t have access.” TRCP has identified 9.5 million acres in the West that are landlocked, meaning the taxpayers own the land but cannot reach it because it is surrounded by private property.
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ConservAmerica recognizes the monumental importance of this bill and strongly supports it. The National Park Service has more than 76,000 assets to maintain, including roads, trails, and buildings. With America’s outdoor recreation economy supporting over 7.6 million jobs and over $887 billion in annual economic output, there are compelling economic reasons to invest in our parks and public lands.
Watch the full webinar here.