June 2015 - Parks & Recreation - 13

Letters
We hope the articles you read in Parks & Recreation are thought-provoking and
engaging, and we want to hear your opinions on what you read in these pages. Through
social media posts, website comments, emails to staff or posts on NRPA Connect, let us
know how the magazine's articles apply to your job and your agency. To submit feedback
for this section, email Executive Editor Samantha Bartram at sbartram@nrpa.org.

LWCF is clear in our unwavering
support for a permanent and fully
funded LWCF with no less than
40 percent guaranteed funding for
the State Assistance Program. To
learn more about the LWCF State
Assistance Program, and how to
get involved in the reauthorization
effort, visit www.nrpa.org/advocacy.]

[Ed. Note: In our May issue, Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT), of the House
Natural Resources Committee, penned
an article titled, " The Case for LWCF
Reform "
(www.parksandrecreation.
org/2015/May/The-Case-for-LWCFReform). In response, the committee's
Ranking Member, Rep. Raul Grijalva
(D-AZ), has provided the letter found below. Both messages have been lightly edited for grammar and punctuation, but
are otherwise published as submitted by
the members of Congress.
As we approach LWCF's scheduled
expiration on September 30th, the debate
on the reauthorization and possible reform of the law is intensifying. NRPA's
position on the reauthorization of the

Readers of the May issue of Parks & Recreation
magazine were likely surprised to read, in an op-ed by
House Natural Resources
Committee Chairman Rob
Bishop (R-UT), that the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) allegedly
played a role in the death of a Colorado woman hiking in Utah in 2008.
The Editor's Note preceding this remarkable essay failed to provide
context for Chairman Bishop's
LWCF " reform " plans and appeared
to endorse his call for the sale or outright giveaway of our public lands.
Parks & Recreation readers deserve
the full story.
The death of Rosalie Backhaus
in 2008 while hiking in Utah was
a tragedy, but it had nothing to do
with the LWCF. To suggest otherwise is wrong.
The Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965 is based on a
simple idea: If we are going to allow

Big Oil to reap massive profits from
drilling for oil and gas on the Outer
Continental Shelf (OCS), which contains energy resources owned by all
Americans, then a small percentage
of those profits should be set aside
for conserving open space and recreational opportunities on shore.
Fifty years later, the program has
been a whopping success. More
than $36 billion has accrued to the
fund, millions of acres have been
conserved, projects have been funded in every state in the Union, and
the companies drilling in the OCS
have become some of the most
profitable multinational conglomerates in human history.
Over the same five decades, states
with large amounts of public land
have developed robust tourism and
recreation economies, with job and
economic opportunities and a quali-

Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)

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Parks & Recreation

June 2015 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of June 2015 - Parks & Recreation