Great American Outdoors Act passes House, could prove big benefit to local conservation, parks

The U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday passed the Great American Outdoors Act, a bill that permanently funds the Land, Water and Conservation Fund and pumps billions into the National Park Service to pay for deferred maintenance.

The House vote was 310-107 and the bill now awaits President Trump’s signature. It previously passed the Senate.

All of Montana’s congressional delegation supported the bill. Montana Sens. Steve Daines, a Republican and Jon Tester, a Democrat, were instrumental in pushing it through the Senate.

“The Great American Outdoors Act is a fitting complement to our successful efforts to permanently reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund. It provides dedicated funding to increase public access to public lands across Montana. I know how important LWCF is to Montana, and I’ll continue working to keep public lands in public hands and increase access to them,” Gianforte said after the vote.

The bill would take a maximum of $1.9 billion annually from federal oil and gas lease revenue and apply it annually from fiscal year 2021 until fiscal year 2025 for Park Service maintenance, including transportation projects.

The bill does not allow the Park Service to use the funds to acquire more land.

It also permanently funds the Land, Water and Conservation Fund, which uses money from offshore oil and gas leases for conservation projects.

The LWCF in past years has amounted to hundreds of millions annually, but that’s been at the whims of Congress, which has withheld funds in years past.

The LWCF has been used locally to great effect. LWCF monies were used to pay, in part, for a massive conservation easement just north of Columbia Falls that protects about 10,000 acres of F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber Co. from subdivision and development along the south face of the Whitefish Range, while still allowing for timber management.

The LWCF is also seen as critical in an even larger easement deal that would protect about 200,000 acres of land primarily west of Kalispell owned by Southern Pine Plantations from development, while still allowing for timber harvest.

That deal was just announced and is still in the works.

According to the National Park Service, the maintenance backlog for national parks totals nearly $12 billion. Deferred maintenance for national parks in Montana totals nearly $190 million, including more than $130 million for Glacier National Park and more than $22 million for Yellowstone National Park, Gianforte’s office said.

One of Glacier’s big ticket items includes rebuilding the Many Glacier Road. The Two Medicine Road also needs work. The Many Glacier Road work is already underway, however.