WASHINGTON– National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis today announced $98,000 in awards from the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) for new “Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership” pilot grants to two states to support statewide planning efforts and analyses to help identify areas underserved by parks and other outdoor recreation spaces in disadvantaged neighborhoods.
The Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership program is a nationally competitive program that complements the existing National Park Service LWCF State and Local Assistance Program by creating new opportunities for outdoor play as well as developing or enhancing outdoor recreation partnerships for communities across the nation. Over the course of LWCF’s 51 years existence, more than 40,000 local outdoor recreation and conservation projects have received funds to protect our nation’s land, water and wildlife heritage. These grants provide capital funding to create new parks and recreational opportunities, as well as significantly enhance existing parks in these cities.
“Our hope is that these LWCF grants will stimulate interest in targeted planning efforts that, among other things, will help identify economically disadvantaged communities that are underserved with respect to parks and other outdoor recreation areas, and thereby provide a nexus to future project proposals suitable for the national competition.” said Jarvis. “An investment in connecting kids to their parks and public lands is an investment that will pay off for their entire lives. Helping communities connect with their youth and getting kids to explore the outdoors greatly benefit future generations on so many levels.”
The LWCF, created by Congress in 1965, promotes access to outdoor recreation resources for present and future generations by providing funding to federal, state and local governments to support a wide variety of outdoor recreation and conservation projects.
President Obama proposed full funding at $900 million for the LWCF in the Fiscal Year 2017 budget, and is pursuing full, permanent, and mandatory funding for the fund’s programs beginning in 2018.
The grants announced today are as follows:
| Sponsor | Grant Amount | Project |
| Missouri Department of Natural Resources | $23,000 | Missouri SCORP Urban Youth Study |
| Maryland Department of Natural Resources | $75,000 | Transforming Baltimore’s 20th Century Recreation and Parks System for the 21st Century |
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