Yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act and the Wilderness Act — two landmark pieces of conservation legislation.
Using revenues from offshore oil and gas development, the Land and Water Conservation Fund has increased access to the outdoors, protected iconic places like National Parks and Civil War battlefields, and advanced more than 40,000 local projects. And thanks to the Wilderness Act, more than 109 million acres of wildland have received our country’s strongest protections.
But protecting the outdoors isn’t just good for our air and water — it’s good for our economy, too. In 2012, more than 900 million visits to federally managed lands and waters helped support over $646 billion in spending on outdoor recreation.
Find out how these acts are protecting America’s lands and boosting local economies.
