John D. Dingell Jr. Conservation, Management and Recreation Act

After letting the Land and Water Conservation Fund lapse in September 2018, Congress passed a bill permanently re-authorizing the fund as part of the package of bills later dubbed the John D. Dingell Jr. Conservation, Management and Recreation Act.

Since 1965, the LWCF has been one of America’s most successful conservation and recreation programs, investing a total of $16 billion into local communities in every state. The LWCF is also the primary funding source to acquire and conserve new public lands that are essential for sustaining our outdoor traditions and economy and protecting fish and wildlife habitat.

Trout Unlimited continues to pursue full and permanent funding of the program through a bi-partisan bill making its way through both the House and Senate.

“Without full funding, the LWCF is like a sportscar with an empty tank of gas,” said Corey Fisher, public lands policy director for Trout Unlimited. “The President’s FY20 budget eliminated discretionary funding for LWCF, underscoring why this legislation is so important. Permanent funding will provide the certainty needed for LWCF to be successful.”

TU played a major role in the passage of the Frank and Jeanne Moore Wild Steelhead Special Management Area Act, which honors a WWII hero and his wife, who together became two of Oregon’s leading conservationists for more than half a century. This designation—long championed by Oregon congressional delegates Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.)—permanently protects nearly 100,000 acres on Steamboat Creek, one of the major spawning tributaries for summer steelhead and spring Chinook in the North Umpqua River.

Some places are too special to mine. The 340,000 acres of the Upper Methow Valley are among the wildest and most pristine places in the Lower 48. In 2018, this region received protections from harmful threats posed by large-scale mining. The Methow sustains habitat for Endangered Species Act-listed Upper Columbia Chinook, steelhead and bull trout, as well as a diversity of other native fish and wildlife species. In addition to protecting the integrity of the Methow River watershed, this act protects the Methow Valley’s recreational and agricultural economy, which is dependent upon clean water, intact landscapes, and healthy fish and wildlife populations.

TU’s advocacy helped pass the Oregon Wildlands Act as part of the John D. Dingell Jr. Conservation, Management and Recreation Act. This legislation will better conserve some of the most famous salmon and steelhead waters in the West by permanently protecting over 30,000 acres in the Devil’s Staircase area in the Siuslaw National Forest as Wilderness and by designating some 280 miles of rivers as Wild and Scenic (including segments of the Rogue, Molalla and Elk rivers and their tributaries, and portions of Jenny Creek in Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument—home to a unique, isolated strain of native redband trout). TU staff and grassroots combined forces to convey the support of sportsmen and women in Oregon for the Oregon Wildlands Act through letters to legislators and other public officials, opinion pieces in media outlets, and by doing outreach to other sportsmen’s groups at various events.