TAKE ACTION! 2024 Federal Trail Funding
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As a member of Back Country Horsemen of America, an all-volunteer public service organization comprised of 32 states and 13,000 members, I respectfully request that you consider signing onto the attached bipartisan Dear Colleague letter.
The letter requests the Committee on Appropriations to provide robust funding for federal public land agencies in their administration and management of trails and outdoor recreation programs throughout Fiscal Year 2024.
Thank you for considering this request.
___________________________________________________________________
Deadline: March 17, 2023
Dear Colleague:
We invite you to sign our letter (text below) urging the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee to provide robust funding in the Fiscal Year 2024 Appropriations bill to the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and U.S. Geological Survey to administer and manage our nation’s trails, especially the 30 National Scenic and Historic Trails. These funding streams are vital if we are to complete and maintain our National Trails System and federally managed trails to the necessary, expected, and deserved standard.
Please join us in supporting our nation’s trails, especially the National Trails System, so that the trail system can continue to support our nation’s outdoor economy.
Please use this Quill link to sign on by March 17, 2023. If you have any questions, please contact Kaila Hood (Blumenauer) at Kaila.Hood@mail.house.gov, Matthew Clarkin (Fitzpatrick) at Matthew.Clarkin@mail.house.gov, or Sean Garcia (Larsen) at Sean.Garcia@mail.house.gov.
Sincerely,
Earl Blumenauer, Brian Fitzpatrick, Rick Larsen
Members of Congress
The Honorable Mike Simpson
Chairman
Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies
2007 Rayburn
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Chellie Pingree
Ranking Member
Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies
2007 Rayburn
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Chairman Simpson and Ranking Member Pingree:
We write in support of robust funding to the National Park Service (NPS), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), U.S. Forest Service (USFS), and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to administer and manage our nation’s trails, especially the 30 Congressionally designated National Scenic and Historic Trails under the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 Interior, Environment and Related Agencies appropriations bill.
We sincerely thank you for your continued support of National Scenic and Historic Trails and trails administered by the land management agencies included in the FY 2023 Interior and Environment Appropriations bill. We are also appreciative of your work to fund trails included in the landmark Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA), and the continued engagement to ensure that trail funding needs are adequately met through annual budgets for federal land managers. These funding streams are vital to complete and maintain our National Trails System and other federally managed trails to the necessary, expected and deserved standard.
Your investment in providing safe, welcoming, and engaging experiences on nationally significant public lands in turn yields an astounding return on investment. Trails provide countless opportunities for economic renewal and growth. The outdoor recreation economy accounts for 1.9 percent ($454 billion) of current-dollar gross domestic product in 2021. And with nearly 70% of Americans living within 60 miles of a National Trail, they connect communities, are a thread that helps preserve habitats, interpret historic stories, and provide convenient access to nature, recreational experiences, and public health benefits. In fact, there are more miles in the National Trails System than in the Interstate Highway System
Background: Keeping Pace and Funding Trails
Over the last decade, rapidly increasing visitation and recreational use of public lands has vastly out-paced recreation funding for the BLM, USFS, and FWS, while per-visit recreation appropriations on these federal lands have dropped dramatically. For example, the USFS averaged almost $4.50 of recreation funding per visit in 2010. But by 2022, that amount had dropped by 25% to $3.37 per visit, according to a recent study by the nonpartisan Conservation Economics Institute. Federal land agency field staffs continue to suffer from previous job reductions, and the resulting lack of oversight is now a roadblock to proper collaborative management between federal land agencies and volunteer based, private nonprofit partners as called for in the National Trails System Act of 1968. Crucial projects are stalled waiting for plan review or other necessary agency expertise, such as environmental studies, design and other work that is above the ability and purview of the nonprofit trail groups. Delays have lasted years, contributing to the maintenance backlog and, ultimately, increasing the cost to taxpayers for this necessary work as trails continue to deteriorate at an even greater rate.
In 2022, volunteers in the National Trails System contributed 819,273 hours, valued at more than $23 million, to sustain the 30 National Scenic and Historic Trails despite ongoing pandemic-related disruptions that cancelled or curtailed many trail maintenance projects and other volunteer activities. The partner organizations also raised more than $20 million in private cash investments to benefit these trails. This astounding investment leveraged by nonprofit partners is noteworthy because it provides crucial augmentation to aspects of the federal workforce.
Federal agency front-line managers provide crucial and unparalleled administration, oversight, and expertise to nonprofits trail partners. This guidance is a key to the success of these nonprofit groups as they take on more of the management responsibility for our National Trails and recruit train and marshal thousands of volunteers in public service. We are reiterating our call for increases in land management agency staffing, as it is one of the highest priority needs for adequate care and maintenance of public lands and facilities on those lands.
While the Great American Outdoors Act is providing historic funding to tackle a portion of the ongoing maintenance backlog, it is not enough to fully address long-term needs. Further, wildfires and climate-related weather events continue to damage or destroy miles of trails across the country at an increasing pace. The agencies are simply not equipped to sustainably manage or maintain our trails and surrounding public lands. Over time, the recreational experiences that are crucial to the public health and local economies will suffer, and the landscapes that are so important to wildlife and to providing our cities with clean air and water, will be irreparably degraded.
Agency Funding Requests
Forest Service (USFS)
National Forest trails benefit everyone and receive increasing public use each year. Collectively, National Forests provide 159,000 miles of trails for activities ranging from hiking, biking, and horseback riding, to hunting, fishing, off-highway vehicle usage, groomed winter trails for cross-country skiing and snowmobiling, and access points for “river trails.”
Yet this sizeable public resource is woefully underfunded and understaffed. Roughly 120,000 of the 159,000 miles of trails need some form of maintenance or repair, and staffing delays are putting off the work while bumping up the final costs. As we mentioned earlier, large recreation budget deficiencies have developed for all federal land management agencies.
Capital Improvement and Maintenance, Trails
An increase in the top-line funding for USFS CMTL is needed to address annual maintenance for all USFS trails, including National Trails. Funding for the National Scenic and Historic Trails managed by the USFS continues to fall well short of what is needed. This increase should not come at the expense of existing budget for other Forest Service managed trails. With this in mind, we request increased funding for trail operations, construction, and maintenance projects for the Forest Service.
Forest Service Staffing
Landscape-scale wildfires, especially in the West, continue to drain agency resources at the expense of conservation, recreation, and the day-to-day management and maintenance needed to meet increasing public demand—this despite the best intentions of Congress’ 2018 fix for the “fire borrowing” phenomenon. The FY 2024 budget should address the staffing levels to bring the agency back in line with historic levels of performance and success. We ask that you augment non-fire staffing to meet the complex demands of managing the federal land base, including recreation rangers, project managers, environmental experts and law enforcement officers.
As you prepare the FY 2024 budget, we ask you to ensure increased federal staffing at land management agencies to meet recreation, trail, and conservation needs of the National Trails System. Further, we ask that funding for training and planning be prioritized so that agencies are properly equipped to steward the treasures entrusted to them by Congress.
Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
The BLM manages 13,468 miles of trails over 245 million acres—more land than any other federal land management agency. These lands contain a variety of ecosystems and landscapes that often provide the public less structured but nonetheless diverse recreational opportunities. BLM recreation resources and visitor services support strong local economies. More than 120 urban centers and thousands of rural towns (comprising 64 million people) are located within 25 miles of BLM lands.
BLM Trail Funding
We thank appropriators for including the long-sought line item in the BLM Budget for National Trails in the FY 2023 Omnibus. This will help the agency to efficiently plan, implement, report, and take advantage of cost-saving and leveraging partnerships and volunteer contributions for every activity related to these national resources.
Additionally, we request increased funding for trail operations, construction, and maintenance projects from BLM, including continuing funds for deferred maintenance projects on national trails and for all trails within sub-activities managed and maintained by BLM, beyond the National Trails System. This investment in our trails will also support the valuable partnerships with the nonprofit trail groups that maintain and share management responsibilities.
National Park Service (NPS)
National Parks, and the world-class experiences their 18,844 miles of trails provide, are one of the most unifying forces in America. Well-maintained trails improve the quality of visitor experiences and enhance visitor safety.
Park Service Operations: National Trails System
The NPS has administrative responsibility for 23 National Scenic and Historic Trails established by Congress. Robust and increased funding in the Park Service Operations account for the National Trails System is essential for keeping these popular trails accessible. These funds will be used for trail operations, construction, and regular and deferred maintenance. Funding would also be used for operations of trails administered or co-administered by NPS, as well as for other National Scenic and Historic Trails that run through NPS managed lands, including valuable partnerships to benefit those trails.
National Recreation and Preservation: Rivers, Trails, & Conservation Assistance
In addition, continued support for the Rivers, Trails & Conservation Assistance (RTCA) program will provide National Park Service expertise in trail and other recreation access projects to communities across the country. The RTCA program brings the expertise of over a century of land management to the greater recreation community. When a community asks for assistance with a trail or other project, National Park Service staff provide free critical tools for success, on-location facilitation, and planning expertise, which draw from project experiences across the country and adapt best practices to a community’s specific needs. Robust funding will ensure these trail planning services are made available to communities in all regions of the country.
Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS)
Visitor Services
FWS manages more than 2,500 miles of trails including significant portions of 15 National Scenic and Historic trails across 860 miles of public lands in 21 states. Continued support of the management of these and all FWS trails is critical through increased and specifically allocated funding for trails in Refuge and Visitor Services, including funding for co-operative agreements with non-profit organizations that support trails.
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
U.S. Geological Survey, Core Science Systems, Digital Trails Project
The USGS National Digital Trails project supports the Department of Interior’s vision to “Increase access to outdoor recreation opportunities for all Americans…” The Digital Trail project includes three major components: a web-based interactive decision support tool (TRAILS) that identifies potential routes to improve connectivity between existing trails and trail systems (including the National Trails System); the development of a public domain nationwide digital trails database; and a mobile maintenance protocol that promotes partnerships with existing mobile applications to provide trail maintenance information to land management agencies. Full funding will allow the USGS to provide crucial information and research for our nation’s trails.
Conclusion
We celebrate and encourage your ongoing support and recognition of the many benefits the National Trails System and all federally managed trails gives to the American people.
We ask that in preparing the FY 2024 Interior, Environment and Related Agencies appropriations bill, you provide increases to specific and dedicated funding to the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, and U.S. Geological Survey to administer and manage the 30 National Scenic and Historic Trails and topline funding that supports all trails. We also ask that you increase funding sufficiently in FY 2024 to ensure adequate field and management staff for the National Trails System and our nation’s trails. Adding agency staffing to ensure the work of nonprofit partners is well managed and public land are maintained to a standard of resiliency is key to the success of these vital and well-used programs.
More broadly, federal land management agencies must be able to meet increasing recreation demands through both robust funding and adequate staffing levels. These agencies must also meet the equally important, growing and more complex demands presented by wildfires, natural disasters, diseases, exotic species invasions, and other weather-related events.
Thank you in advance for your consideration of our request and for your ongoing support of the National Trails System and all trails.
Sincerely,
Related Legislative Issues
Selected legislative information: Appropriations, Environment, Natural Resources