CT Congressional Delegation Announces $3.94 Million Grant to Support State Parks & Expand Outdoor Recreation Access

Hartford, CT – As June marks the start of Great Outdoors Month, the Connecticut Congressional Delegation announced that the U.S. Department of Interior has awarded a $3.94 million grant from the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) to the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP). The funding will help improve local public parks and outdoor recreation access for Connecticut residents. 

“This federal grant enhances and expands Connecticut’s great outdoors for the benefit of the public. As longtime advocates for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, we are proud to have fought for this funding to increase recreation and outdoor opportunities across Connecticut. With the summer season officially underway, this funding will help support local projects and expand outdoor access to more Connecticut residents while creating good jobs and bolstering conservation efforts in our state,” said the Connecticut Congressional delegation.

“Over the last several years Connecticut has seen a major increase in demand and use for outdoor recreation facilities across the state,” said Governor Ned Lamont. “Outdoor recreation provides important physical and mental health benefits, and the outdoor opportunities in our state are a big part of what makes Connecticut a wonderful place to live. These federal funds will be put to use expanding and enhancing our varied outdoor recreation opportunities for all residents and visitors to enjoy. Once again, our congressional delegation has delivered for Connecticut.”

“People in Connecticut love their outdoor spaces, whether they’re State Parks and Forests, a municipal park, an urban garden, a greenway, or other open space,” said DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes. “Connection to nature and being in the outdoors is so important for our health, and it’s also important to ensure our outdoor spaces aren’t loved to death and infrastructure is properly maintained and upgraded where needed. That’s why Gov. Lamont worked with the General Assembly this session to invest significantly in our state parks buildings and grounds. In a similar fashion, this LWCF funding will provide similar benefit to the outdoor spaces of Connecticut. Thank you to the Department of Interior and our Congressional delegation for this award.”

“One of the best investments we can make is in stewarding the lands and waters that sustain us and the generations to come. Today we are making critical investments that will help expand access to the outdoors for communities across the country, all while creating jobs and safeguarding the environment from the effects of climate change,” said U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland. “The Land and Water Conservation Fund is an integral part of advancing President Biden’s conservation vision, which recognizes the need to address the nature and climate crises, improve equitable access to the outdoors, and strengthen the economy.”

The grant funds for DEEP will help support Connecticut parks as part of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, and help invest in outdoor capital infrastructure needs across the state.

The LWCF has funded $5.1 billion to support 45,000 projects in every county in the country since it was established in 1965. The LWCF supports increased public access to and protection for federal public lands and waters — including national parks, forests, wildlife refuges and recreation areas — and provides matching grants to state governments for the acquisition and development of public parks and other outdoor recreation sites at no cost to taxpayers.

Each state and territory’s allocation of funds is determined by a population-based apportionment formula set in the LWCF Act. States and territories further allocate these funds to local projects, usually through a competitive process. These investments support the Biden-Harris administration’s America the Beautiful initiative by bolstering locally led outdoor recreation and conservation projects to protect and enhance the country’s public lands and waters.