Lame Duck to Decide Lands Funding

National Park & Forest Land Acquisitions Need Funding

Congress will recess for elections before approving the FY07 Interior Appropriations bill, which funds the Forest Service, National Park Service and other federal land management agencies. This means the final decision on land acquisitions will also wait until November or later. Congress adopted a continuing resolution on September 26th that will keep the agencies functioning for two months past the September 30th end of the fiscal year.

The House version of the spending bill had the lowest allocation for conservation land purchases in decades. That bill included only 10 national park projects, including $1.5 million for acquisition of key parcels along the Carbon River in the recently authorized addition to Mt. Rainier National Park. In a similar situation for the Forest Service, $1.0 million was allocated to the Columbia Gorge.

In August, the Senate developed a bill that included $978,000 for Stampede Pass, $500,000 for the Columbia Gorge, but nothing for the Carbon River. The 620 acre parcel at Stampede Pass has a mile of the Pacific Crest Trail, plus forests, a lake and historic railroad grades. Conservationists have urged our congressional representatives to include both the Carbon River and Stampede Pass in the final bill. The Sierra Club is working with Cascade Land Conservancy and Trust for Public Land on these projects.