Conservationists are urging Congress to ignore President Donald Trump’s requested changes to the Land and Water Conservation Fund in his fiscal 2026 budget request.
Trump signed the Great American Outdoors Act into law during his first term, which provided permanent annual funding of $900 million for the LWCF. The fund is used to purchase land for conservation or recreation use.
But the LWCF Coalition and other conservation groups say Trump’s new budget request, released Friday, would “put a stake in the heart” of the program by diverting funds away from LWCF.
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Specifically, the budget would propose diverting $111 million in LWCF funding to a new “Forest Service Deferred Maintenance Program.”
