Legacy of the Land

Since the early 1970s, Congress has incorporated millions of acres of land into the nation’s systems of parks, historic monuments, wildlife refuges and other special places. But often this was merely an exercise of drawing lines on a map. This land is by no means saved. Day by day, tracts are lost to development that should be forever part of the federal estate for future generations to enjoy. For instance, there are an estimated 150,000 acres within the borders of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, but only about 14,000 acres so far have actually been acquired by the National Park Service. Those purchases that can be made in the future will have to be made at highly escalated prices.

There is a mechanism for buying such property known as the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which receives up to $900 million a year, primarily from offshore oil revenues. But the Reagan Administration opposed any additional park purchases, and Congress was able to appropriate only about $200 million a year for the fund. The rest of the money went to general governmental expenditures in violation of the spirit of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, but unfortunately not in violation of the law itself. The account was not established as a trust fund and therefore the money did not have to be spent for land acquisition as, for instance, gasoline tax revenues must be spent for highway work.

The proposed American Heritage Trust Act sponsored by Rep. Morris K. Udall (D-Ariz.) would correct this problem and allow the federal government--and states and localities--to buy the lands needed to fill out the parks and to protect pristine regions that are threatened by development. The idea for a trust fund is not new, but it received impetus from the President’s Commission on Americans Outdoors appointed by Ronald Reagan. After extensive hearings and study, the commission reported in 1987 that “more than anything else, we found in Americans a love of the land and a shared conviction that it is our legacy to the future.”

The commission said that $1 billion a year for such purchases was the minimum required. The Udall bill provides for allocation of $900 million a year over about a decade, until the fund has a trust capable of earning $1 billion a year in interest. At that point, the American Heritage Trust would become self-sustaining. At least 30% of the income would be dedicated to federal land acquisition and 30% to state and local grants.

The major complaint in Congress has come from appropriating committees, which do not like any reduction in their authority to say how money should be spent. But they still would be able to approve specific appropriations within the outlines of the act. Other major opposition comes from the national park “inholders” who hold private land within the boundaries of the parks. They attack the legislation as a federal land grab. But the bill would not affect present federal authority to condemn land. And the federal agencies involved always attempt to purchase from willing buyers first.

The land is all there was in America’s prehistory. The land is the nation’s only permanent legacy to itself. Congress must act now to make certain that legacy is not lost.