$21.5 Million Asked for Recreation Area
The U.S. Secretary of the Interior has requested $21.5 million on behalf of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area for acquiring land in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.
The amount is about $10 million more than was allocated for the mountain parklands this year, and more than $20 million more than was allocated for it the year before.
Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan said he was following President Bush’s direction to buy land to provide recreation for residents of the nation’s major urban areas.
In presenting his budget, Bush singled out the Santa Monica Mountains as an example of such needed parks. The Reagan Administration traditionally asked for no money to buy land in the Santa Monicas, though Congress generally provided some.
Lujan proposed $141 million for Park Service purchases of land nationwide. The only other land-buying money recommended for the Western Region was $400,000 for property in American Samoa.
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