Federal Fund Sources

Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF)

The LWCF Civil War battlefield preservation program comprises matching grants to state and local governments that Congress must appropriate annually. The grants are awarded through a competitive process, with a match of at least 50 percent. The LWCF authorizes money for both fee simple purchases and easement acquisition, but non-profits cannot receive funding directly. The program is administered by the American Battlefield Protection Program (ABPP), an arm of the National Park Service in the Interior Department. $900 million a year flow into the Land and Water Conservation Fund from Federal receipts from leasing the Outer Continental Shelf for oil and gas development. The CWPT helped to secure the $11 million appropriated by Congress, which is to be spent annually within three years.

http://www2.cr.nps.gov/abpp/LWCF2002.htm

^ go to the top

Transportation Enhancement (TE) Program

The TE Program comprises matching grants to state and local governments from automatically available funding. The program offers a 20 percent non-Federal match, for both fee simple purchases and conservation easement acquisitions. Like the LWCF program, non-profits cannot get funding directly. Rather, they must be passed through a governmental sponsored program. TE was first authorized in 1991, under the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, and then again in 1998, as part of “The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century” or “TEA-21”). As TEA-21 expires on September 30, 2003, Congress will be considering a major highway re-authorization bill (including TE) in the coming year.

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/tea21/
http://www.enhancements.org/

^ go to the top

Farmland Protection Program (FPP)

The FPP comprises matching grants from automatically available funding. The FPP requires at least a 50 percent non-Federal match to permanent conservation easements. Unlike the LCWF and TE programs, non-profits can receive funding directly, as well as state and local governments. This Federal program was authorized in 1996 to provide Federal financial assistance in the form of matching grants to keep working farms in existence. Through Fiscal Year 2001, FPP was a relatively small program administered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/fpp/

^ go to the top