Laura Lundquist

(Missoula Current) Thanks to the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, Montana has added hundreds of recreation sites, city parks and thousands of acres of public land over the past 60 years. But a recent Trump administration order will hinder future efforts to use the funding, so conservation groups are pushing back.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum signed a secretarial order last week that changes how money from the Land and Water Conservation Fund can be used with all federal land except the U.S. Forest Service, which falls under the Department of Agriculture. He also announced that $437,377,607 in LWCF funding was allocated for projects in all 50 states, U.S. territories and the District of Columbia.

The order severely limits the amount of land that can be adde

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