Permanent Authorization for Full Funding of the Land and Water Conservation Fund

We wish to express our gratitude for three Land and Water Conservation Fund grants and to recognize the enormous benefit our community receives from this funding.

Modest LWCF grants have resulted in tremendous rewards for the City of Bothell.  These funds enable acquisition of a large forest within one mile of 13,000 students.  The preservation of this forest will result in opportunities for students to experience a forest through science, literature and art.  In our urban world where children are too often isolated from nature, this is a priceless gift.  This acquisition, long sought by the city, the school district, the University of Washington and Cascadia College, is now approaching completion because Congress long ago saw the need for such funding.

As desirable as education and recreation are, this forest also serves as the largest ecological feature within an entire lower watershed, filtering and cooling water for Chinook and other salmon species.  The importance of our fishing industry can hardly be overstated.  This is why the Tulalip Tribes were one of the first to call for conservation of this forest.

We are on the cusp of saving this last great forest in Bothell because of the LWCF. The potential rewards will last forever.  This forest would have been lost to development and all of the opportunities would have been lost without LWCF funding. 

We urge Congress to permanently authorize full funding of the Land and Water Conservation Fund.  As opportunities for outdoor recreation, education and resource preservation are discovered it is the LWCF that has enabled communities like ours to turn visions into realities.

Sincerely,

Friends of North Creek Forest