Park purse could close

COEUR d’ALENE — The city of Coeur d’Alene’s 32 parks are a small, green anomaly in the annals of urban development.

One of the funding sources for those parks, a federal money pot called the Land and Water Conservation Fund, is up for renewal by Congress.

The feds will decide within the next three months whether to continue funding the kitty, which allocates royalties generated by offshore oil and gas drilling for use in the nation’s park system.

The money is used in open, aquatic and green spaces from big — such as Hells Canyon — to small, such as the Canfield Sport Complex.

Bill Greenwood, the director of Coeur d’Alene Parks and Recreation, said his department will likely tap into the fund through an application process when the city’s latest park is developed in the Hawk’s Nest subdivision, where developers set aside land for a park.

“It’s part of the agreement,” Greenwood said. “We’re not at that development stage yet.”

Greenwood isn’t overly anxious for the Land and Water Conservation Fund vote, because, he said, it has over the years been adequately funded.

“Sometimes the funding gets cut a little bit, but it’s always been pretty strong,” he said. “Both political parties like to see the benefits of having it.”

The city has used the fund on more than a dozen Coeur d’Alene parks including McEuen, City Park, Memorial Field, Ramsey, Shadduck, North Pines and Northshire parks.

The fund is used by the state as well. Idaho has received almost $300 million to preserve land such as the Boise Foothills, and Hells Canyon and protect from development scenic waterways including the Lower Salmon River.

The fund was last reauthorized in 2015, but its use in Coeur d’Alene goes back to the 1980s when the city had just four parks.

Then-parks director Doug Eastwood said the city used the grant to begin building what has become one of the greenest cities in the region.

“A lot of that is attributed to the fact that we were able to utilize the Land and Water Conservation Fund,” Eastwood said. “Without it, Coeur d’Alene would not be the park system that it is today.”

Since its inception, the fund has been scaled back and Idaho receives about $250,000 annually. Municipalities can apply for money from the fund on a two-year rotation.

Money from the fund has been used at federal, state and municipal levels. The federal bucks have bolstered Blackwell Island, the St. Joe Wild and Scenic River, recreational management on the Wolf Lodge and Beauty Bay management areas, and on Panhandle forests.

In addition, Forest Legacy Program grants fund timber sector jobs and sustainable forest operations in North Idaho.