One of my recent favorite memories was enjoying lunch with my family at a picnic table at a campsite on the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest in northern Georgia. I remember the bumpy drive into camp, the sharp smell of the pine trees, feeling the splintered wood underneath me and seeing the sun’s rays beam through the tree canopy.  

Nearly every memory I have associated with the great outdoors involves some sort of infrastructure—forest roads, picnic tables, visitors’ centers, etc. But over time, infrastructure naturally degrades and deteriorates due to several factors, from overuse to harsh weather exposure. As an agency, we are often unable to perform timely maintenance that would mitigate this deterioration so public lands can be safely enjoyed by all.  

A major step was taken three years ago today to address this issue when the Great American Outdoors Act was enacted into law, becoming the single largest investment in public lands in United States history.

This legislation established the National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund and funded it for five years to begin to combat the maintenance backlog across five land management agencies.  

Shortly after August 2020, the Forest Service created the Legacy Restoration Fund implementation team. I now proudly serve as its director. This team is responsible for overseeing the solicitation, selection and funding allocations for more than 1,000 deferred maintenance projects across the United States.

On a spreadsheet, these projects may seem small and niche, but all are meaningful to the communities we serve. Every project submission for funding is scored against several criteria, including its effect on sustainability, local and rural economies in areas with the greatest needs, and its effect on the agency’s overall maintenance backlog.

For example, a bumpy, pot-holed forest road impacts community members’ experiences driving to nearby schools, shops and hospitals. But Legacy Restoration Funding makes it easier for local small business contractors to be sub-contracted to fulfill these projects by expediting and streamlining the processes to hire them.

This story and so many more drive home our agency’s motto of “Caring for the land and serving people.”

As we enter our fourth year of funding, our agency has so much to be proud of when it comes to these projects. For example, we’ve completed 147 deferred maintenance projects with nearly 850 currently in process across 42 states and Puerto Rico. These combined projects are estimated to address $635 million of the maintenance backlog and contribute approximately $350 million to the gross domestic product annually.

There is still so much more to be done, but I am proud to work alongside so many talented engineers, project managers, economists, data specialists, budget analysts, recreation planners, landscape architects, contract specialists, seasonal crew members and many others who are collectively working every day to transform the experience of visitors and nearby residents of our nation’s forests and grasslands.

We know that even today there are memories being assigned to picnic tables at scenic locations, clear trails through thick woods, and smooth country roads leading to favorite forest destinations.

Restoring this legacy preserves these memories for generations, and thanks to the Legacy Restoration Fund established by the Great American Outdoors Act, we can do just that!

Happy third anniversary, Great American Outdoors Act!

Editor's Note: Watch Deputy Chief Chris French's video about the anniversary here. Provide feedback about this column, submit questions or suggest topics for future columns through the FS-Employee Feedback inbox.