Parks eye federal funds for wider pastures

Conservationists who for years have struggled to win federal funding for new or expanded parks suddenly are seeing green, even in these lean budgetary times. President Obama has proposed spending $420 million next year to buy land for national parks, forests and wildlife refuges, and to help states fund parks and recreation projects. That is more than double the amount Congress provided for 2009. What's more, Obama has called for boosting the annual pot of money to $900 million within five years -- a level that has been reached only once, during the President Clinton years, since President Johnson signed the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act in 1964. Environmentalists are drawing up wish lists for enlarging parks and wildlife habitats nationwide, including the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge on the coast of Maine and Mt. Rainier National Park in Washington state...LATimes