Celebrating a Once-in-a-Generation Investment

Hailed as one of the largest investments in public lands in U.S. history, the Great American Outdoors Act is a lifeline for America’s most treasured places, including the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail (CDT) and other congressionally designated trails. 

The walk from Mexico to Canada on the CDT is anything but simple. Some of the complications are predictable– planning resupply, passing through water-scarce areas, or repairing a piece of broken gear. Others are less predictable, varying, and in some cases compounding, each year. Even the best-prepared hiker on the CDT may be startled to encounter dozens of blowdowns in a day, a washout, a stretch of trail damaged by a wildfire, or a dangerous road walk. With the CDT becoming more popular for day, section, and through-hikers each year, the need to maintain and complete the CDT is increasingly important. The Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) is a path for this much-needed work on the CDT and for similar work across America’s public lands. 

Landmark Legislation for Growing Popularity 

Over the past decade, recreation across the Continental Divide has increased dramatically, with visitors flocking to destinations like the CDT for a day hike, section hike, or even a 3,100-mile thru-hike. Visitation to national parks and other public lands nationally has also grown rapidly in the past twenty years, but funding for land management agencies has remained stagnant. This chronic underfunding, paired with an increasing number of sites to manage, has left land management agencies struggling to maintain facilities such as campsites, trails, and visitor centers. At the end of 2023, the National Park Service estimated that the cost to address all deferred maintenance across their sites would be over $23 billion. 

Introduced in early March of 2020, the Great American Outdoors Act quickly gained nearly sixty bipartisan cosponsors. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck not even two weeks later, policymakers in both chambers recognized that even in the midst of an emergency and extreme bipartisan disagreement, they couldn’t overlook this opportunity to codify support for some of America’s unmaintained public lands. The Great American Outdoors Act passed the House and the Senate in June of 2020, and was signed into law that August, officially becoming a landmark piece of legislation for America’s public lands.

What is the Great American Outdoors Act? 

GAOA works to ensure that public lands are safe, enjoyable, and accessible by funding new and established public lands programs. 

The National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund

The National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund (LRF), established under GAOA, authorizes up to $1.9 billion per year from 2021 to 2025 to fund deferred maintenance on public lands. Funded by the revenue from coal, oil, natural gas, and renewable energy projects on public lands, LRF demonstrates the important relationship between the various ways that public lands are utilized and managed. 

As of March of 2024, $2.4 billion had been allocated to specific projects under the LRF. Projects in national parks along the CDT include road, bridge, and water system rehabilitation in Glacier National Park, historic structure restoration in Yellowstone National Park, and campsite improvements in Rocky Mountain National Park.

The Land and Water Conservation Fund

Since its creation in 1964, the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) has enabled conservation and outdoor recreation opportunities in every county in the nation. LWCF directs federal government revenues from fossil fuel extraction into a fund that is distributed to federal agencies and state and local governments for land acquisition and conservation projects nationwide. The LWCF has funded conservation projects of all shapes and sizes, from federal land acquisition to project natural, cultural, and recreational resources, to local initiatives to build bike lanes and neighborhood parks.

In 2019, the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act permanently reauthorized the LWCF, but didn’t permanently fund the program, leaving it vulnerable to political gridlock over appropriations. GAOA resolved this issue by permanently authorizing a mandatory annual allocation of

 $900 million to the LWCF. This level of funding is a significant increase from previous Congressional appropriations, and it will ensure that new land can be protected and promoted on a local and national level for years to come. 

What does this mean for the CDT? 

Investing in Communities Through Trails

Together, the LRF and the LWCF will play crucial roles in ensuring that the CDT is safe, enjoyable, accessible, and eventually complete. 

The US Forest Service CDT Program has applied for $4.8 million under the LRF to address deferred maintenance on the CDT in New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming. CDTC has committed to providing another $2 million in matched funds over the course of that potential investment, totaling an investment of $6.8 million to address deferred maintenance. Pending passage of the Congressional budget, CDTC is excited to work with the Forest Service on projects that make the trail more accessible, more enjoyable, and safer for folks spending time on the trail through projects like clearing downed trees or building new connector trails. 

The impact of the LRF funds could ripple well beyond the tread of the trail. An investment in the CDT is fundamentally an investment in the communities that care for, support, and enjoy the trail. By engaging conservation corps, youth corps, partners, and volunteers in this work, youth and young professionals living along the CDT would have increased access to skill-building opportunities, pathways to careers in public lands management, and an opportunity to steward lands in their community. 

In 2023, national park visitors spent a total of $26.4 billion on lodging, restaurants, retail, and more in gateway communities nationwide. In a 2023 survey of 134 small business owners in communities along the CDT, 82% believed that protecting, promoting, and enhancing public lands was important to the general well-being of business and jobs in their local economy. LRF funding ensures that public lands can support an ever-growing number of visitors and gateway communities can reap the benefits. 

Completing the CDT

While about 95% of the CDT follows constructed single-track trail on public land, several incomplete sections still force travelers to use highways and local roads to complete a continuous route. The LWCF is the greatest and in some cases the only, tool that CDTC has to address this remaining 5% and complete the CDT. “One of our most important goals at CDTC is completing the Continental Divide Trail. LWCF grants are the sole source of funding to do so through land acquisition or easements,” said CDTC Executive Director Teresa Martinez. 

In 2016, LWCF enabled the purchase of nearly 5,000 acres of private land near Grants, New Mexico. Thru-hikers and community members alike benefitted from the project, which used the newly acquired land to reroute a portion of the CDT that had previously been a dangerous road walk. In the process, hunters benefitted from new access to a large area of big game habitat. In 2019, CDTC’s Small Business Survey found that 98% of small business owners surveyed in CDT states supported full funding for LWCF. As land acquisitions, easements, and completion remain high priorities for the CDTC, permanent funding for LWCF offers an opportunity to address some of our most pressing and challenging obstacles. 

What’s next? 

The original round of funding authorized for the LRF under GAOA is set to expire in 2025. While the impacts of the first round of funding have been huge, the funding has only made a small dent in the growing deferred maintenance needs on public lands nationwide. Reauthorization of the LRF is an emerging policy priority for the CDTC and other outdoor recreation advocates to ensure funding for the ever-growing list of deferred maintenance on public lands. 

When paired together, permanent funding for LWCF and finite funding for LRF create a paradox: how do we care for a growing quantity of public lands without permanent funding for deferred maintenance? Policymakers must find a way to sustain the enthusiasm that exists for establishing new public lands and community greenspaces, while also providing care and stewardship for the public lands that already exist.

GAOA was a nearly unprecedented investment in America’s public lands. Now, CDTC and other outdoor recreation and conservation advocates face a new challenge – recreating the enthusiasm that created GAOA to ensure its impacts can continue in the years to come.  

By Claire Cutler (she/her), CDTC Trail Policy Specialist