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Alturas, Calif., June 9, 2022 — The USDA Forest Service will invest nearly $55 million in funding from the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) to support 41 projects across California and Hawaii in Fiscal Year 2022.
These projects are part of $503 million in GAOA-funded investments across USDA-managed lands nationwide to address deferred maintenance, improve infrastructure, increase user access, and support rural economies while also meeting conservation goals.
“We are proud to advance the GAOA’s historic investment in public lands infrastructure through dozens of projects in both California and Hawaii,” said Jennifer Eberlien, Regional Forester for the USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region. “Increased visitation to national forests strains recreation infrastructure and contributes to associated maintenance challenges. This funding is crucial for ensuring visitor safety and enjoyment of public lands.”
Total funding for GAOA is split between the Legacy Restoration Fund (LRF) and the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). There are 36 LRF projects identified across 14 national forests in the Pacific Southwest Region totaling $32 million. In addition, two LWCF projects totaling $4.9 million, one in Hawaii and one in California, were funded under the Forest Legacy Program and three LWCF projects totaling $18 million were funded under the National Forest System Land Acquisition Project on the Tahoe, Plumas, and Shasta-Trinity National Forests in California.
For more about the GAOA, visit: www.fs.usda.gov/managing-land/gaoa.
The Great American Outdoors Act addresses the growing $5 billion backlog of deferred maintenance on national forest and grasslands – including $3.7 billion for roads and bridges and $1.5 billion for visitor centers, campgrounds and other facilities. The Forest Service administers more than 370,000 miles of roads, 13,400 bridges, 159,000 miles of trails, 1,700 dams and reservoirs, 1,500 communications sites, 27,000 recreation sites, and 40,000 facilities of other types. Great American Outdoors Act also helps the Forest Service’s continued support of rural economies and communities in and around national forests and grasslands across the country.
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