Changes to LWCF Draw Sharp Rebukes from Outdoor Recreation Groups

As predicted, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum this week issued an order implementing changes to the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), the popular bipartisan funding apparatus that uses offshore oil royalties to support conservation projects. And while Burgum’s Secretarial Order 3442 was less sweeping than conservation and outdoor recreation groups had warned it would be, they still framed the directive as an “attack” on the popular bipartisan funding apparatus that each year contributes hundreds of millions of dollars to public lands, improving recreation access and fish and wildlife habitat across the U.S.

Burgum announced the changes on Sept. 4 in a secretarial order that “clarifies the roles and responsibilities of the Bureaus and Offices within the Department to effectively manage outdoor recreation resources.”

“Outdoor recreation is part of our national heritage, and these historic investments will help communities across the country expand access to green spaces, restore natural areas and create more opportunities for people to get outside,” according to a prepared statement from Burgum. “The Land and Water Conservation Fund continues to deliver on its promise to connect Americans to the outdoors while protecting the landscapes that make our nation special.” 

The news release announcing the secretarial order along with distribution of $437,377,607 from LWCF said the money would support projects that “benefit wildlife habitat, improve water quality and provide flood protection while creating new recreational opportunities will be prioritized.”

But opponents say the changes enacted under the Burgum ordered threaten to undermine the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) that President Donald Trump signed into law in 2020, and which two prominent federal delegates from Montana — U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., and U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont. — have promised to defend.

Created to support the four main federal land programs (National Parks, National Forests, Fish and Wildlife, and Bureau of Land Management), as well as to provide grants to state and local governments to acquire land for recreation and conservation, LWCF can legally receive up to $900 million in appropriations. But since Congress established the LWCF in 1964, it had only received the full amount twice until 2020. The GAOA changed that, erasing any question marks from the LWCF funding equation by guaranteeing $900 million per year in perpetuity. In doing so, the legislation seemed to permanently annex the flagship conservation program into America’s public lands legacy.

Since then, however, Interior officials under President Trump have issued secretarial orders that narrowed the ways in which LWCF money can be distributed. For instance, on Nov. 9, 2020, less than three months after Trump signed GAOA into law, former Interior Secretary David Bernhardt issued a secretarial order unilaterally imposing restrictions on the spending, which were later reversed under former President Joe Biden. Although Bernhardt’s initiative to bridle LWCF spending projects was short-lived, it betrayed a strategy to inhibit the availability of LWCF funds that sporting and recreation groups have worried would resurface during Trump’s second term.

According to the Land and Water Conservation Fund Coalition, the group’s worst fears — that the secretarial order would redirect LWCF money away from conservation land purchases and toward routine upkeep of federal properties, effectively undermining the program without defunding it — never materialized.

“Fortunately,” the order does not include one of the administration’s worst ideas, leaving out its prior proposal to divert LWCF funding for unauthorized purposes,” according to Amy Lindholm, a spokesperson for the LWCF Coalition. “We are grateful to LWCF’s bipartisan Congressional champions for forcefully rejecting that out-of-touch proposal and continuing to defend LWCF, our public lands, and the many communities that depend on these funds in every corner of the country.”

Even so, Lindholm said the order “still does real damage. It hinders critical conservation and public access by reviving previously rejected ideas, severely restricting Bureau of Land Management’s protection priorities for sportsmen and other outdoor recreationists, hamstringing LWCF land conservation tools, limiting private property owners’ rights to sell their land, and imposing new procedural roadblocks that will delay or derail urgently needed outdoor access and recreation projects.”

“It’s not just a policy mistake — it’s a betrayal of the values that GAOA represents,” Lindholm said.

“These moves are a solution in search of a problem, and they will cause the public to lose access to beloved places forever,” according to Lindholm. “LWCF has worked successfully for 60 years without spending a dime of taxpayers’ money, which is why GAOA continues to have overwhelming bipartisan support throughout the country.”

Backcountry Hunters & Anglers (BHA) called for an immediate reversal of Secretarial Order 3443, saying that it “fundamentally distorts LWCF’s mission.”

According to BHA, the order’s most concerning provisions add restrictive spending requirements to LWCF, including by:

• Narrowing eligibility for acquisitions. The order directs that proposed acquisitions primarily benefit the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service, sidelining projects on Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service lands that have long expanded access and improved habitat for hunters and anglers.
• Inserting political veto power. The order requires written approval from both state governors and local county officials before acquisitions can proceed, incorporating “bureaucratic hurdles into an already rigorous review process, giving political gatekeepers veto power over projects even when they’re supported by local communities and involve willing sellers.”
• Opening the door to land transfers. The order allows states to use LWCF funds to purchase “surplus” federal property in what BHA calls “a dangerous precedent that could facilitate the transfer or disposal of federal public lands.”

The LWCF Coalition also expressed alarm at the precedent the order sets by reversing existing policies prohibiting states from using LWCF grant money to purchase protected federal conservation land.

“With the continued threat of public land disposals, that change could help create a dangerous practical pathway for federal land sales by placing the burden on states to essentially buy them back,” according to Lindholm, referencing the specter of a public lands sell-off that emerged in the GOP spending bill earlier this summer.

“Congress did its job back in 2020. So did President Trump,” Lindholm said of the GAOA. “They passed — and he signed — a bill with overwhelming bipartisan support to permanently guarantee LWCF funding of at least $900 million annually, to give communities the tools they need to protect the places that matter most to their way of life and their local economy,” according to Lindholm.

“This Secretarial Order flies in the face of that success and puts the president’s conservation legacy at risk,” Lindholm added. “If the administration truly wants to honor Teddy Roosevelt’s conservation ethic, we urge DOI to reverse these anti-public lands policy changes as soon as possible.”

Both Daines and Zinke have pledged to oppose changes to LWCF, particularly as the program’s success has emerged as a through-line that defines their conservation legacy, and their political campaigns.

“Senator Daines strongly supports LWCF and fought hard for its permanent authorization and full funding,” according to a spokesperson for Daines. “He will oppose any changes that weaken the good work of the program to expand hunting, fishing and recreational access to our public lands.”

A spokesperson from Zinke’s office emphasized that the congressman from Whitefish voted for and helped write the 2026 Interior Appropriations Funding Bill “that did not include the changes the Trump administration proposed.”

“Congressman Zinke’s record on LWCF and the Great American Outdoors Act has been crystal clear, and that of unwavering support,” according to the spokesperson. “In Montana, GAOA has helped Yellowstone recover from the historic 2022 flood and Glacier is rebuilding miles of roadways and bridges. LWCF has allowed Montanans to unlock isolated public lands and swap parcels to resolve checker-boarding. Zinke has long been an advocate of modernizing the program by diversifying the funding sources to include renewables and focusing acquisitions on improving access to high quality sportsmen and recreation areas.”

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