Panel Urges $1-Billion Fund for Outdoors

A presidential commission on outdoor recreation announced Tuesday it will recommend a $1-billion-a-year federal program to build a corridor of natural settings for recreation and wildlife across the country and to conserve more land and rivers for public use.

Called the President’s Commission on Americans Outdoors, the panel of elected officials, businessmen and environmental leaders appointed by the President called on Reagan to “light a new prairie fire” of concern and investment for outdoor recreation nationwide.

But the panel’s summary of its final report, which is due to be completed next month after 18 months of public hearings, immediately angered environmentalists because it was less ambitious than earlier drafts. It is also expected to draw strong opposition from some members of the Administration over its cost and its provision for additional government land controls.

In an attempt to soften previous complaints from industry groups, the panel has “substantially condensed and weakened” many of its earlier recommendations, staff members said.

‘Fairly Cooly Received’

“It’s been fairly coolly received by the Administration so far,” said a staff member. “I think the general thrust of the report is not in keeping with the kinds of things the Administration would basically like it to say.”

Nevertheless, Republican Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander, chairman of the commission, called the recommendations “the kind of report that a Western President who enjoys chopping wood and riding horses and admires Teddy Roosevelt would want to accept, adopt and support.”

In the summary, the panel asks Congress to create a trust fund with offshore oil and gas receipts and other revenues that would generate $1 billion annually for recreation and conservation.

It would replace the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which receives $900 million annually for conservation purposes from federal oil revenues but which, under the Reagan Administration, has gone largely untapped. In the past, Congress has appropriated about $200 to $300 million a year, with the rest going to the general treasury. Under the commission’s recommendations, the fund would have to be spent on conservation.

Network of Pathways

A chief use for the funds would be creation of a connecting series of recreation “greenways” across the nation that would be built along stream courses, old canals and abandoned rail lines. The greenways would “link our cities and create a coast-to-coast, across the continent network of protected pathways,” the summary said.

The commission also suggests establishment of a new government institution that would oversee recreational projects, award grants to local communities for recreational purposes and promote government support of outdoor activity.

The commission backed away from an earlier recommendation that would have provided immediate protection for rivers found eligible for a Wild and Scenic Rivers Designation.

Angers Rivers Group

The change angered environmentalists, including the American Rivers Inc., which lobbies for river preservation.

Groups representing mining, highways, petroleum and manufacturing have complained that earlier versions of the proposals would create new land use controls, dramatically increase the nation’s preservation of rivers at the expense of dams and other industry-supported projects and exclude much of the nation’s open land from mineral exploration.