Federal Land Acquisition under the Land and Water Conservation Fund

Abstract

Abstract For more than 55 years, the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) has been used to acquire land for outdoor recreation and conservation purposes. At the federal level, land has been added by all four federal land management agencies (Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, and the Forest Service) and in all states across the country. Historical land use patterns, public attitudes, and management policy changes have all influenced the pattern of federal land acquisition under the LWCF over time. We model these acquisitions and compare them across agencies and within agencies over time. We find state population and the amount of existing public land in a state to be significant in explaining the geographic distribution of federal land acquisitions under the LWCF.