{"id":44311,"date":"2019-02-26T14:00:28","date_gmt":"2019-02-26T22:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/?p=44311"},"modified":"2019-04-12T14:51:50","modified_gmt":"2019-04-12T21:51:50","slug":"public-lands-legislation-is-one-step-closer-to-becoming-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/news\/public-lands-legislation-is-one-step-closer-to-becoming-law","title":{"rendered":"Public Lands Legislation Is One Step Closer to Becoming Law"},"content":{"rendered":"

When news reports last spring indicated a program that helps millions of children access public lands was in danger of expiring, Jackie Ostfeld knew she had to act. <\/span><\/p>\n

The director of Sierra Club Outdoors and chair and co-founder of the Outdoors Alliance for Kids, Ostfeld started activating the network of <\/span>100 members<\/span><\/a> in the alliance to send a message to the Department of the Interior about the importance of the program, called <\/span>Every Kid in a Park<\/span><\/a>. (REI is a member and supporter of the alliance.) Established in 2015 under the Obama administration, Every Kid in a Park grants fourth-graders and their families in the United States free access to federal public lands, including national parks. In the program\u2019s first year, more than two million kids downloaded a voucher off the Every Kid in a Park website, and 500,000 of those vouchers were exchanged for a free pass at kiosks in federal public lands. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt really is a critical program to expand equitable access to our parks and public lands,\u201d Ostfeld said. \u201cIt\u2019s not a silver bullet to get all kids outdoors, but it is a really good starting point to make sure that all kids know the parks belong to them, and they are welcomed and valued there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

More than 15,000 supporters of Every Kid in a Park submitted comments advocating for the program to then Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke last spring. During a meeting in June with military families, Zinke received a delivery of 1,000 handwritten postcards from children expressing why they loved their free park passes. Then, on June 11, 2018, the staff at the Department of the Interior took action to renew and <\/span>continue the program<\/span><\/a> for another school year\u2014updating the pass and the website. <\/span><\/p>\n

The campaign was a success. But the program supporters realized the need to make it permanent\u2014to get Congress to put it in law. <\/span><\/p>\n

Legislation in the <\/span>Natural Resources Management Act<\/span><\/a>, which the House of Representatives approved today in a bipartisan 363-62 vote, does just that. Among more than <\/span>100 other bills bundled into the public lands package<\/span><\/a>, Congress authorized the Every Kid in a Park program\u2014meaning it is now a codified, official program with a seven-year timeline\u2014and changed its name to Every Kid Outdoors. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think there will be a lot of energy revived for this program,\u201d Ostfeld said. \u201cAmericans, by and large, value our public lands and natural spaces. I think it\u2019s a great sign that there are things that we agree on. And I\u2019m happy to see Congress moving forward on areas where there are agreement.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Approval of the bill in the House came just two weeks after it passed the Senate with a bipartisan 92-8 vote. Now, it\u2019s on its way to the Oval Office for the president to sign into law.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Washington Post<\/span><\/i> called the Natural Resources Management Act the \u201c<\/span>decade\u2019s biggest public lands package<\/span><\/a>\u201d for the millions of acres of land and hundreds of miles of river it protects across the country, as well as the programs it preserves. That includes not only Every Kid Outdoors but also the <\/span>Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF)<\/span><\/a>, a 54-year bipartisan program that the LWCF Coalition and the Wilderness Society say has impacted nearly every county in the country. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe like to call [the LWCF] the most important conservation and recreation program that no one\u2019s ever heard of,\u201d said Amy Lindholm, manager of the LWCF Coalition on staff at the Appalachian Mountain Club. \u201cWhen we show people lists of all the places [the LWCF has benefitted], they are constantly blown away. Places [where] they grew up, places they love to go.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n