Land and Water Conservation Fund
The Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) is the primary federal program for conserving natural areas, acquiring land for public recreation, and providing matching grants to states for parks and recreation facilities. Created in 1965 and permanently funded at $900 million per year since 2020, the LWCF uses revenues from offshore oil and gas drilling — not taxpayer dollars — to protect the nation's natural heritage.
Current Law (2026)
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Permanent annual funding | $900 million (since Great American Outdoors Act of 2020) |
| Revenue source | Offshore oil and gas lease revenues (not general tax revenue) |
| Federal land acquisition | Used by NPS, USFWS, BLM, USFS for inholdings and critical parcels |
| State grants | 40% minimum allocated to state outdoor recreation programs |
| State matching requirement | Generally 50% non-federal match |
| Contract ceiling | Up to $30 million/year may be obligated for land acquisition contracts |
| Eligible territories | States, DC, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, Virgin Islands |
Legal Authority
- 54 U.S.C. § 200302 — Establishment of the Fund (creates the LWCF in the Treasury; deposits include offshore oil/gas lease revenues, surplus property sales, motorboat fuel taxes, and other designated receipts)
- 54 U.S.C. § 200303 — Availability of funds (amounts deposited for FY 2020 and beyond are available for expenditure without further appropriation — the permanent funding provision from the Great American Outdoors Act)
- 54 U.S.C. § 200304 — Statement of estimated requirements (requires an annual budget statement breaking down LWCF needs; at least 40% of total must be available for state purposes)
- 54 U.S.C. § 200305 — Financial assistance to States (authorizes matching grants to states for outdoor recreation planning, acquisition, and development; requires statewide outdoor recreation plans)
- 54 U.S.C. § 200306 — Allocation for Federal purposes (amounts for federal purposes are allotted by the President for land acquisition by NPS, USFWS, BLM, and USFS)
- 54 U.S.C. § 200308 — Contracts for acquisition (limits to $30 million/year in contract obligations for land acquisition within congressionally authorized areas)
- 54 U.S.C. § 200309 — Options contracts (authorizes the Secretary to enter contracts for options to acquire land within National Park System boundaries)
How It Works
The LWCF's funding model is elegant: revenues from the depletion of one natural resource (offshore oil and gas) are reinvested in the conservation of others (public lands, parks, wildlife habitat, and recreation areas). The Fund receives revenues from offshore mineral lease bonuses, rentals, and royalties, supplemented by surplus property sales and motorboat fuel taxes.
For decades after its creation, Congress routinely appropriated far less than the LWCF's $900 million authorization, diverting the unspent balance to other uses. The Great American Outdoors Act of 2020 ended this practice by making the full $900 million permanently available without annual appropriation — one of the most significant conservation funding victories in decades. Amounts deposited for FY 2020 and beyond are now available automatically.
The Fund serves two major purposes. Federal land acquisition uses LWCF dollars to purchase inholdings (private land within federal boundaries), critical habitat, and other high-priority parcels for the National Park System, National Wildlife Refuge System, Bureau of Land Management lands, and National Forests. These acquisitions are made from willing sellers only — the government cannot use LWCF to condemn land.
State grants provide matching funds (typically 50/50) for outdoor recreation planning, land acquisition, and facility development. At least 40% of the total Fund must be allocated for state purposes. States must maintain a comprehensive statewide outdoor recreation plan (SCORP) to qualify. These grants have supported thousands of local parks, trails, playgrounds, and recreation facilities in every state and territory.
The annual budget process includes a detailed statement of estimated LWCF requirements, breaking down needs across federal agencies and state programs. The President allocates federal amounts across the four major land management agencies unless Congress specifies otherwise in appropriations.
How It Affects You
If you hike, camp, fish, paddle, hunt, or use any outdoor recreation area: There is a better-than-even chance that the trail you hike, the campground you use, the waterway access point you launch from, or the park your kids play in was acquired or improved with LWCF funding. Since 1965, LWCF has funded over 42,000 state and local projects and the federal acquisition of millions of acres for national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, and BLM lands. The Grand Teton range expansion, Appalachian Trail corridor acquisitions, urban park development in dozens of cities, trail connectors in state parks — LWCF has touched virtually every major public recreation investment in the U.S. If you want to see specific projects funded near you, the LWCF Coalition (lwcfcoalition.org) maintains a searchable project database, and the NPS LWCF State and Local Programs page at nps.gov/subjects/lwcf shows funded projects by state. The program's permanent full funding at $900 million/year (enacted in the Great American Outdoors Act of 2020) means the pipeline of new projects has expanded significantly after decades of Congress appropriating far less than the authorized amount.
If you work for a state, county, or municipal park agency: LWCF state grants — which must receive at least 40% of the total Fund — are a primary funding source for park land acquisition and outdoor recreation facility development, available through a 50/50 federal-state match. Your state's outdoor recreation agency receives LWCF state funds and allocates them to local projects through a competitive grant process. To access LWCF grants, your state must maintain an approved Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP); check your state parks agency's website for the current SCORP status and the grant application timeline. The match can be met with state appropriations, local bonds, private donations, or in-kind contributions (donated land at appraised value). The critical constraint: properties acquired with LWCF funds are subject to a perpetual deed restriction requiring they remain in public outdoor recreation use — you cannot later sell or convert an LWCF-funded park to non-recreation use without NPS approval and compensating replacement property. This "conversion prohibition" at 36 CFR Part 59 is strictly enforced; violations can require full repayment of all federal funds. Plan acquisitions carefully with this long-term constraint in mind.
If you own land adjacent to or within the boundary of a federal conservation unit: The federal government can only acquire land with LWCF funds from willing sellers — there is no eminent domain authority under LWCF. If your land is within a national park, national forest, wildlife refuge, or other federal unit boundary, land managers may approach you about a purchase, but you are never legally required to sell, and you can reject or negotiate any offer. LWCF-funded federal acquisitions are typically at appraised fair market value — you can get an independent appraisal at your own expense and negotiate based on the difference. If you receive an offer you consider below market, you can counter, ask for a second appraisal, or decline entirely. The Land Trust Alliance (landtrustalliance.org) and regional land trusts can provide guidance on conservation easement alternatives that allow you to remain on the land while receiving tax benefits for the conservation value. Some landowners who want their land permanently protected but don't want to sell outright donate conservation easements to land trusts, with the land trust coordinating with LWCF-funded federal acquisition for the underlying fee interest if desired.
If you work for a conservation advocacy organization or follow public lands policy: LWCF is the most important federal conservation funding program — and the fight over its funding has been one of the defining conservation battles of the past 50 years. From 1965 to 2019, Congress routinely appropriated far less than the $900 million/year deposited from offshore energy revenues, diverting the difference to general treasury purposes. The John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act (2019) permanently reauthorized LWCF, and the Great American Outdoors Act (2020) mandated full $900 million/year funding — a historic victory for conservation advocates. The program has bipartisan support (outdoor recreation economics, hunting/fishing access, and military base buffer lands all appeal across party lines) but faces periodic budget pressure during deficit debates. Track LWCF appropriations and project funding through lwcfcoalition.org and the National Recreation and Park Association (nrpa.org), which monitors LWCF implementation and advocates for specific project funding.
LWCF funds have been instrumental in acquiring land for the National Trails System, connecting communities to public lands through long-distance hiking and recreation corridors.
State Variations
LWCF state grants are available to all states and territories, but implementation varies:
- Each state must maintain an approved Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP) to qualify
- States set their own priorities for how grant funds are allocated among local projects
- Some states supplement LWCF with their own dedicated conservation funding (state land trusts, real estate transfer taxes)
- The 50% matching requirement may be met with state funds, local funds, or in-kind contributions
- Guam, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, and Northern Mariana Islands have separate allocation provisions
Implementing Regulations
-
36 CFR Part 59 — LWCF State Assistance: Post-Completion Compliance Responsibilities — the NPS regulations governing what states and localities must do after an LWCF-funded project is complete to maintain compliance with the grant conditions. These are perpetual obligations, not time-limited ones. Key provisions:
- § 59.1 — Applicability: applies to every area or facility for which LWCF assistance was received, regardless of the extent of federal participation; compliance responsibility rests with the state for both state and locally sponsored projects; the protected area is defined by the Section 6(f)(3) boundary map approved by NPS — which in many cases exceeds the footprint that received federal funds, to protect the viability of the recreation entity
- § 59.3 — Conversion prohibition (the "6(f)(3) restriction"): once an area is funded with LWCF assistance, it must remain in public outdoor recreation use in perpetuity unless NPS approves a conversion; to obtain NPS conversion approval, the sponsor must show: (a) all practical alternatives were evaluated and rejected; (b) an approved appraisal establishes the fair market value of the property to be converted; (c) the proposed substitution property is of at least equal fair market value and of reasonably equivalent usefulness and location; (d) the converted area was not acquired with LWCF funds from someone who retained a right of reverter; and (e) the conversion and substitution are consistent with the statewide outdoor recreation plan (SCORP); the substitution property then becomes subject to the same perpetual 6(f)(3) restriction
- § 59.4 — Residency non-discrimination: LWCF-assisted programs may not discriminate based on residence; fee differentials are permitted, but nonresident fees cannot exceed twice the resident fee; where there is no resident charge, the nonresident fee cannot exceed comparable fees at similar facilities in the area; this prohibition applies to regularly scheduled and special events
The 6(f)(3) conversion restriction is one of the most operationally consequential grant conditions in federal outdoor recreation policy — it explains why parks departments are reluctant to apply for LWCF funds for properties that might eventually face development pressure. The restriction runs with the land indefinitely, binds successors, and applies even if the federal share of the original project was small. Violations require repayment of all federal funds plus compensating substitution land. NPS has been known to track LWCF-funded parcels for 40+ years after project completion.
Pending Legislation
- HR 5036 (Rep. Estes, R-KS) — Exempt Northeast Sedgwick County Park from LWCF conversion rule. Status: Introduced.
- HR 1261 (Rep. Salazar, R-FL) — Let LWCF pay for state water quality/wetland restoration projects. Status: Introduced.
- HR 841 (Rep. Gosar, R-TX) — Ban LWCF from purchasing private land. Status: Introduced.
- HR 105 (Rep. Gosar, R-AZ) — Increase LWCF recreation share from 3% to 10%, cap at $50M. Status: Introduced.
Recent Developments
The Great American Outdoors Act of 2020 permanently funded the LWCF at $900 million annually, ending decades of congressional underfunding. This bipartisan legislation represented one of the largest conservation funding commitments in a generation. The National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, and other agencies are now working through a significant backlog of priority land acquisition projects that were previously unfunded. The program has also increased focus on urban and underserved community access to outdoor recreation.
- Trump federal land acquisition pause (2025): The Trump administration paused new federal land acquisitions through LWCF — directing agencies to prioritize recreation and access projects over new land purchases. The pause reflects the administration's general preference for state and private land ownership over federal acquisition. Congress appropriated $900M in LWCF funding for FY2025-2026 (as required by the Great American Outdoors Act); the administration's discretion is in project prioritization, not total spending. Land trusts and conservation organizations have shifted focus to stateside LWCF grants (40% of LWCF funding goes to states for outdoor recreation planning and facility development).
- DOGE and NPS maintenance backlog: The Great American Outdoors Act also funded a National Park Service maintenance backlog (up to $1.9B annually for 5 years). DOGE review of National Park Service spending identified maintenance contracts as potential reduction targets; however, the GAOA's mandatory spending formula protects the maintenance backlog funding from discretionary cuts. NPS staffing reductions (through hiring freezes and voluntary separations) affect the ability to execute funded maintenance projects — the money is appropriated but the workers to spend it are fewer.
- State LWCF grants and outdoor recreation: The stateside LWCF program — providing matching grants to states for acquiring and developing parks, recreation areas, and open space — has funded over 45,000 projects nationwide since 1965. State and local governments must match federal LWCF funds dollar-for-dollar. The program has an equity focus: the Biden administration directed LWCF stateside grants toward underserved communities lacking accessible parks. The Trump administration's LWCF guidance has relaxed the equity targeting while maintaining the stateside program structure.
- Offshore revenue and LWCF funding: LWCF is funded primarily from offshore oil and gas royalties, not direct appropriations — an unusual permanent funding mechanism that ties conservation to fossil fuel production. Rising offshore production revenue in 2023-2025 (driven by Gulf of Mexico output and post-IRA offshore leasing) has generated LWCF-eligible revenue well above the $900M mandatory level, with the surplus going to Treasury. The funding mechanism creates a philosophical tension: conservation funded by fossil fuel extraction.