The Senate Committee of Energy and Natural Resources held a hearing Feb. 9 to review the implementation of the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA).
During the hearing, Angus King, Maine senator and chair of the Subcommittee on National Parks, said he was "particularly interested" to learn about how the agency selects deferred maintenance projects. He added it was important the process be transparent and that funds are distributed equitably to have the most impact.
"I know $9.5 billion is a large sum, but it represents only a portion of the funding needed to eliminate the more than $25 billion in deferred maintenance needs," King said at the hearing. "Clearly there's more to do. Deferred maintenance isn't responsible."
King also inquired about the early impact funding from GAOA will have on improving accessibility in public lands.
"I want to make sure we're on the right track toward those goals finally," King said. "I see this hearing as an opportunity to begin conversations around potential future funding for the National Parks and Public Lands Legacy Restoration Fund 2019-20 seemed a long way away. Today it doesn't seem that far away."
During the hearing, Assistant Secretary for the Fish and Wildlife and Parks Agency Shannon Estenoz and Deputy Chief of the National Forest Service Chris French gave their testimonies on how funding was allocated.
Estenoz reported that, of the $900 million provided by the GAOA for 2021, funding for the the Land and Water Conservation Fund totaled $681.9 million, including $401.2 million in grants to states and other partners and $280.7 million for federal lands programs. The administration proposed $681.9 million for the department for 2022, including $398.6 million in grants to states and other partners and $283.3 million for federal lands programs.
During French's testimony, he noted the U.S. Forest Service manages more than 193 million acres of forests and grasslands in 43 states and territories, and faces a variety of challenges. One of those challenges is the decline of non-fire agency personnel, a whopping 40 percent since the late 1990s, which leads to struggles in maintaining infrastructure and assets. The wildfire risk increases allocation of assets to firefighting and prevention, which means the list of deferred maintenance projects keeps getting longer. It is currently estimated the agency needs $63 billion to complete the current deferred maintenance.
He also outlined investments the U.S. Forest Service has made, including The Forest Legacy Program, which has conserved, with the partnership of state agencies, 2,926,785 acres in 51 states and territories.
