releases: https://web.archive.org/web/20140822043928/http://shea-porter.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/shea-porter-announces-67963-grant-to-the-city-of-laconia
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| https://web.archive.org/web/20140822043928/http://shea-porter.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/shea-porter-announces-67963-grant-to-the-city-of-laconia | Shea-Porter Announces $67,963 Grant to the City of Laconia | 2014-08-15 | 2014 | 2014-08 | Democrat | House | NH | Carol Shea-Porter | S001170 | web.archive.org | legacy | FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Naomi Andrews, 202-225-5456 LACONIA, NH — Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter (NH-01) is pleased to announce that the City of Laconia will receive a matching $67,963 Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) grant for the Weirs Community Park Playground. This facility will include playground, picnic, and pavilion areas, along with an amphitheater, bathhouse facilities, walkways, and parking. Shea-Porter said, “Matching funds provided by the LWCF have supported countless state park and recreation projects in thousands of communities in every state in the nation, including right here in New Hampshire. I am proud to support funding that helps communities such as Laconia.” On March 31, 2014 Shea-Porter signed onto a bipartisan letter to the Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee, urging the Subcommittee to provide robust funding for the LWCF in fiscal year (FY) 2015. Shea-Porter said, “Investments in LWCF support public land conservation and ensure access to the outdoors for all Americans, in rural communities and cities alike.” The LWCF has helped to ensure the permanent protection, recreational access, and maintenance of critical lands in our national forests, recreation areas, parks, wildlife refuges, Civil War battlefields, and historic sites. No taxpayer dollars are used for LWCF funds, with the money primarily derived from federal oil and gas receipts paid by energy companies that extract publicly-owned resources from the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). Background: The full text of the letter follows: March 32, 2014 The Honorable Ken Calvert The Honorable James P. Moran Chairman Ranking Member Subcommittee on Interior, Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Environment, and Related Agencies Committee on Appropriations Committee on Appropriations U.S. House of Representatives U.S. House of Representatives Washington, D.C. 20515 Washington, D.C. 20515 Dear Chairman Calvert and Ranking Member Moran, Fifty years ago this September, the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) Act of 1964 established America’s most successful conservation program. The bill was designed to assure our growing population that outdoor recreation lands would be secured, on a pay-as-you-go basis, for future Americans’ requirements. As we mark this anniversary, we are writing to express our strong support for LWCF and urge you to allocate robust funding to this valuable, time-tested program for the next generation in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill. Investments in LWCF support public land conservation and ensure access to the outdoors for all Americans, in rural communities and cities alike. It has created outdoor recreation opportunities in every state and 98 percent of counties across the country, opening up key areas for hunting, fishing, and other recreational access; supporting working forests and ranches; and acquiring inholdings and protecting critical lands in national parks, national wildlife refuges, national forests, Civil War battlefields, and other federal areas. The State and Local Grants Program provides crucial support for state and local park acquisitions in cities, counties, and rural towns as well as recreational facilities and trail corridors. It is the government's primary investment tool for ensuring that children and families have access to close-to-home recreation, having funded over 41,000 projects including sports fields, outdoor recreation facilities, and trails. The Cooperative Endangered Species grants program provides states and counties with essential resources for habitat conservation that in turn allows for appropriate economic development. And the Forest Legacy Program helps maintain critical jobs in the woods while protecting outdoor resources, recreation access, and local economies. As you know, LWCF uses no taxpayer dollars. Instead, LWCF funds are primarily derived from oil and gas receipts paid to the federal government by energy companies that extract publicly-owned resources from the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). Congress created LWCF as a bipartisan promise to return precious resources back to the American public by using these funds specifically for conservation and recreation purposes. In addition, the Ryan-Murray Budget included a deficit neutral reserve fund supporting full funding of LWCF in FY 14. Unfortunately, over the 50-year history of LWCF, over $18 billion of these funds have been diverted from their original conservation purpose. This chronic problem has created a substantial backlog of conservation and recreation needs; has caused state, local, and federal land management agencies to postpone or cancel many important projects; and has created undue hardship for many property owners. Despite this history of underfunding, LWCF remains the premier federal program to conserve our nation's land, water, historic, and recreation heritage. LWCF funds support an entire suite of conservation tools to address national, state, local, and regionally-driven priorities across the country. These include working lands easements that keep farmers and ranchers as stewards of the landscape that provides their livelihoods, working forest projects that keep timberlands forested and accessible and provide jobs in our rural communities, and vital recreation access projects – making public lands public – for hunting, fishing, and other activities. As our nation continues down the path towards economic recovery, LWCF should be adequately funded to ensure that it plays the strongest possible role in revitalizing local communities. America's outdoor recreation, conservation, and preservation economies contribute $1.06 trillion to the nation's economy each year and support 9.4 million American jobs (1 out of every 15 jobs in the U.S.). Support for public lands among the American public remains consistently and overwhelmingly strong. We look forward to working with the Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies in the coming months to ensure that the suite of LWCF programs receive strong support in FY 2015 so that the federal government can maintain its commitment to conservation and recreation. As Americans continue to visit forests, parks, historic battlefields, and wildlife areas across America, we urge you to provide the funding levels necessary to ensure these opportunities exist everywhere in our great Nation. Thank you for your consideration of our request. ### | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |