LWCF is funded by revenue collected from federal offshore oil and gas leases. Every year, $900 million in royalties paid by energy companies was supposed to subsidize the fund. Yet Congress has authorized full funding only once, and President Trump’s 2020 budget proposal for the Department of Interior cut funding for the program by 95%.
The Land and Water Conservation Fund was created “to safeguard natural areas, water resources and our cultural heritage, and to provide recreation opportunities to all Americans,” according to the LWCF Coalition, a goal that has been achieved.
“There isn’t a small town in Montana that hasn’t benefited from LWCF,” said Mike Penfold, a program that has provided matching grants for community parks, trails and swimming pools, as well as public land and wildlife habitat acquisition.
Joe Penfold devoted much of his working life to outdoor and recreation issues, yet his sons had a hard time getting him to talk.
Walton
Joe Penfold took a roundabout path to the founding of LWCF. He was hired as the executive director of the Izaak Walton League of America in 1957, one of the nation’s earliest conservation groups. The following year he was appointed to the Bureau of Outdoor Recreation after making a name for himself by fighting a proposed dam on the Green River in Colorado’s Dinosaur National Monument.
“I’m pretty proud of him,” Mike said.
“He was very much an outdoor guy,” he added. His interests included hiking, backpacking and fly fishing. “But my brother (John) and I had a hard time discussing anything with him” because he was so reserved.
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