Thank you for your ongoing coverage of the huge success in protecting North Creek Forest, (Bothell City Council authorizes purchase of last parcel of North Creek Forest. Nov 10, 2016).

In addition to generous state and county funding and broad support from many in the Bothell community, we could not have saved North Creek Forest – Bothell’s last remaining mature forest – without funding from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF).

LWCF is the nation’s most important grant program for protecting our parks, wildlife habitat, and forests. It’s funding comes from offshore oil and gas leases – not taxpayer dollars.

This 50-year-old program is bipartisan, strongly supported by the American people, and has benefited nearly every county in the nation. Despite that, Congress allowed it to expire for the first time last year, and only at the last minute passed a short term three year extension.

As a recipient of three LWCF grants for North Creek Forest, we know how important full funding and permanent authorization of this program is, to help communities like ours.

Right now, Congress has an opportunity to make the LWCF permanent, thanks to legislation championed by Senator Cantwell in the Energy Bill. We applaud Senator Cantwell’s leadership and stand with her to ensure this program is here to help many other projects across Washington. It is more important than ever to ensure the future of programs that help create parks like North Creek Forest.

We thank our entire delegation – Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, and Congresswoman Suzan DelBene for their leadership to champion funding and reauthorization of LWCF.

Emily Sprong, Friends of North Creek Forest Executive Director