What the funding fight means for national parks

http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/12/politics/national-parks-land-water-conservation-fund/index.html


What the funding fight means for national parks
Ashley Killough Profile

By Ashley Killough, CNN

Updated 8:45 AM ET, Sat December 12, 2015
Story highlights

Congress is debating the future of the Land and Water Conservation Fund
Environmentalists fear pending land conservation projects are at risk if Congress doesn't reauthorize the law
House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop of Utah is a critic of the law, saying it has become a tool for the federal government to simply buy more land

(CNN)Conservatives and conservationists are clashing over the Land and Water Conservation Fund, a 50-year-old program that is suddenly in the middle of a spending battle on Capitol Hill.

The fund uses royalties from offshore oil drilling to help purchase and develop outdoor recreation areas. It's led to the creation of tens of thousands of small projects like parks, beaches, trails, hunting and fishing areas, and baseball fields, in addition to funding bigger conservation projects in national parks and wildlife refuges. ................