Concrete Camping Trip Highlights the Dangers of Greenspace Cuts

Environment Georgia

Atlanta, GA—As thousands of Georgians head off on holiday weekend camping trips, Environment Georgia set up camp in a parking lot today to highlight the dangers of cuts to conservation funding. Cuts mean that parks, like the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area in Metro Atlanta, do not have the funds needed to protect critical greenspace.

“Concrete camping is no fun,” said Environment Georgia’s State Advocate Jennette Gayer. “But this is the future that Congress is advocating for if they continue to cut funding from critical conservation funds.”

The Land and Water Conservation Fund was established in 1963 and serves as the only major national fund for expanding greenspace. Unfortunately, the fund, which is authorized at $900 million annually, is consistently raided. In 2012 approx. $315 million was spent on conservation funding and in 2011 $322 million.

“The Land and Water Conservation Fund can make our parks bigger and better, and this is important for our environment AND our economy,” said Leigh Bost the Atlanta Store Manager for Patagonia. “Parks like the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area help keep businesses like Patagonia going.”

The Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area is a great example of the opportunities the Land and Water Conservation Fund provides—Since 1978 millions of LWCF dollars have been used to help buy land and create the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. Unfortunately, the park, which is supposed to be 10,000 acres of greenspace along the Chattahoochee River, has stalled out at 6,500 acres—as funding has dried up.

“Every year the Land and Water Conservation Fund is raided we miss opportunities to make places like the parks along the Chattahoochee bigger and better—land that is good for parks is also good for shopping centers and sub-developments and it is almost impossible to dial back sprawl,” said Gayer.

A proposal in the Senate (S. 338) would provide full and dedicated funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (whose funding comes from offshore oil lease dollars, not tax payer dollars) in perpetuity. Neither Sen. Saxby Chambliss or Sen. Johnny Isakson have signed onto the legislation, but speakers urged the Senators do so in addition to standing up for full funding in this years Interior Budget.