Funding for America's Lands and Waters

Each year, federal land management agencies — the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, Fish & Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Land Management — receive funding from Congress through an Interior Appropriations bill. Our challenge is to ensure that agencies receive adequate funding to manage the lands they administer and that funding is prioritized for resource protection, as opposed to harmful resource extraction.

The Wilderness Society advocates for programs that protect our public lands from the effects of climate change. Acquiring land that connects ecosystems helps to mitigate the effects of global warming on our public lands by providing migration corridors and safe havens for plant and animal species to adapt to their changing environment.

Land and Water Conservation Fund

Working at the community and state level, we identify lands which will provide exceptional conservation and recreation value that are at risk to development and we work with Congress to fund these needs through the Land & Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), the Forest Legacy Program (FLP), and a number of other funding mechanisms that Congress authorizes.

Green Budget

In advocating for wild lands on a larger, national scale, we work with many other conservation groups to assemble a yearly Green Budget of conservation funding priorities. We use the Green Budget to work with Congress on behalf of the federal land management agencies to ensure that they receive adequate funding to manage the lands they administer, and that the funding is prioritized for resource protection, as opposed to harmful resource extraction.