President Obama’s proposed 2016 spending budget, released in January, includes $3.96 million for federal agencies to acquire lands in the Columbia Gorge, through the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). More than $2.6 million is slated to expand Steigerwald National Wildlife Refuge, with another $1.36 million to support U.S. Forest Service acquisitions. Congress ultimately decides what goes into the final budget, but the president’s recognition of Gorge protection builds support this year for congressional funding.
 

The proposed funding is part of the “Pathways to the Pacific” project, a multiagency, multi-land trust effort to protect large landscapes along the Columbia River. Friends of the Columbia Gorge has worked with other nonprofits and federal government agencies for three years to promote the project. The president’s budget includes a total of $32 million for Pathways projects.
 

Last fall, potential funding seemed impossible, as LWCF had expired and there was little hope for reauthorization. But in December, Congress released the omnibus federal spending package that reauthorized LWCF for three more years. The bill increased the funding allocation for LWCF from $300 million in 2015 to $450 million for 2016.
 

LWCF was created fifty years ago and is paid for from royalties of offshore oil drilling, which means no taxpayer funds are used for the program. The reauthorization is a positive step, but conservationists are calling for permanent authorization of the program. Senators from Oregon and Washington, along with the majority of the House delegations from both states, are leading the charge for permanent funding.