Federal act holds promising future for SC public lands and wildlife
By Sara Green
Posted by Charleston Post & Courier, 7/23/20
South Carolinians and the wildlife that call the Palmetto State home have a promising future thanks to the passage of the Great American Outdoors Act. The bill could be the most important environmental law since the days of Teddy Roosevelt and now is on its way to the president’s desk.
The Great American Outdoors Act will fully and permanently fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund. That means $900 million annually will go to preserving, creating and ensuring access to outdoor recreation for the benefit of all Americans. It also establishes a National Parks and Public Lands Legacy Restoration Fund to support deferred maintenance on National Parks, Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Indian Education lands.
The Great American Outdoors Act also is a valuable climate solution, as shown by its inclusion in a June 30 report by the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis. The report — Solving the Climate Crisis: The Congressional Action Plan for a Clean Energy Economy and a Healthy and Just America — provides a blueprint for action that will achieve economic growth, protect public health and reduce the threat of climate change. Land preservation is one common-sense way of sequestering carbon pollution and reducing our climate impact while also protecting our outdoor heritage and supporting our outdoor economy.
Here in South Carolina, the bill’s passage means more people could have access to green spaces because the state will receive the funds to build and restore parks and public lands. South Carolina has received about $303.5 million from the Land and Water Conservation Fund over the past five decades, protecting places such as Fort Sumter National Monument, Cape Romain and Francis Marion National Forest, as well as such small local parks as Rifle Range Road Park in Mount Pleasant. The Outdoor Industry Association found that active outdoor recreation generates $16.3 billion in spending annually in South Carolina, supports 151,000 jobs and produces $1.1 billion annually in state and local tax revenue. Further, about 893,000 people hunt, fish or watch wildlife in South Carolina each year, spending $2.5 billion on wildlife-related recreation. Add in the fact that the Great American Outdoors Act funding has the potential to create jobs restoring our parks and green spaces that are vital to our economic recovery, and we have legislation that is good for wildlife such as red knots and flatwoods salamanders and also good for the economy, reducing our climate change pollution and protecting human health.
The importance of this legislation cannot be overstated, but we shouldn’t stop here. We need to see more bipartisan climate solutions coming through Congress, and we need more champions like Rep. Joe Cunningham, D-S.C., leading the way. Now more than ever, we need role models for action who will shape the future of our country and lay the foundation for the reality that future generations will face here in South Carolina and across the country.
Sara Green is executive director of the S.C. Wildlife Federation.
Posted by Charleston Post & Courier, 7/23/20
Banner Photo by: Cecelia Jeffords