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Provide Full Funding For The Land & Water Conservation Fund

Commentary: The Land & Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) is one of those programs whose rewards most of us enjoy without even realizing it. Providing funds to conserve and create public spaces on land ranging from national forests to national monuments to city parks, LWCF has positively impacted nearly every county in the United States. Here in southern New Mexico, it’s protected some of our most cherished trails and landscapes: Soledad Canyon, Achenbach Canyon, and Peña Blanca to name a few.

But despite bipartisan acknowledgment of its benefits, LWCF is being blocked from achieving its full potential. This is because, despite granting it permanent reauthorization in 2018, Congress has yet to appropriate full funding for the program at $900 Million a year. And we are all the poorer for it. While politics in our nation’s capital remain divisive, programs such as LWCF, programs that have proven to be effective at creating positive change in our communities, are lost in the back and forth that dominates our political discourse.

Recently Friends of Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks hosted a hike to Achenbach Canyon. We were joined on this hike by Congresswoman Xochitl Torres Small, members of Las Cruces City Council, community leaders and community members. We wanted those in attendance to feel the urgency to protect access to the canyon. We wanted to talk about why LWCF mattered so much to our community and public lands. We also wanted people to recognize the importance of these smaller pieces of land that grant access to bigger ones.

These small parcels of land scattered throughout the monument will be critical as we begin to develop an outdoor economy in our community. A not often talked about aspect of LWCF is the rule that land acquired using these funds must be open to the public. Open and accessible public lands matter to our community and organization. LWCF is key in realizing a vison where public lands remain truly public lands.

LWCF funds could greatly improve the lives of communities such as ours, making them healthier, more resilient, and more vibrant. For instance, the City of Las Cruces was recently awarded LWCF support to make much-needed upgrades to Apodaca Park. Apodaca is a jewel of a park, a site of family gatherings every weekend, old growth trees, and is culturally important to the people of Las Cruces and its history. Additionally, the Friends of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks, in collaboration with the Bureau of Land Management, has submitted an application to acquire land protecting access to Achenbach Canyon in the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument. We eagerly await the result of that important application. The Friends has also identified additional local places and projects that would benefit from LWCF.

After writing numerous articles advocating for the program, I found myself struggling to think of what I could say that was new. Then, after leading a Friends-sponsored hike for local families, I realized that the experiences we have all had on these lands speak for themselves. LWCF-funded parks are the places where we tell our family story, celebrate birthdays, play pick-up basketball, and where we come together as a community to mourn and heal. After the tragic massacre at a Wal-Mart in our sister city of El Paso Texas, the Friends hosted a healing hike. And we could think of no more serene a space than Soledad Canyon, a place protected by LWCF. Communities are built on our shared and loved public spaces. We need to honor them by protecting them.

The Friends thanks New Mexico’s Congressional delegation, who advocate tirelessly for our public lands. We encourage them to urge their colleagues to vote for full funding of the Land and Water Conservation Fund.