Congress provides Forest Service & BLM with a 17% budget increase

After eight years coming up on the short end of Halloween-like pranks, the Interior Department and Forest Service are getting a treat this year - a $4.6 billion funding increase for 2010. The 16.8-percent increase passed by both the U.S. House and Senate today will provide a much needed boost for a wide range of initiatives including wildfire suppression, climate change research and the National Wildlife Refuge System. The measure now moves to the desk of President Obama, who is expected to sign the measure before the clock strikes midnight on Saturday evening. One of the most important components of the Interior funding bill is the creation of new funds the Department of the Interior and Forest Service will use to cover the wildly escalating costs of fire suppression. The bill also provides approximately $385 million for research and development that will examine the effects of climate change on the U.S. and what else can be done to help the country respond to the problems it poses. The bill also provides: # $90 million for the Legacy Road and Trail Remediation Program, a program that restores healthy watersheds and improves recreational opportunities by decommissioning obsolete roads and maintaining trails. # $75 million for the National Landscape Conservation System, which protects some of the most spectacular scenery managed by the Bureau of Land Management. # $306 million for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, a program that takes revenues from offshore oil and gas drilling to support the conservation of America's lands and waters. "This improved funding level is a step in the right direction, but we do want to see LWCF get the $900 million it is meant to receive each year," Rowsome said...read more