The country's best chance in a century to commit to conservation is staring it in the face, and yet the means to make it happen may not survive the U.S. Senate.

The Conservation and Reinvestment Act, which provides hundreds of millions of dollars for land acquisition and recreation projects nationwide, sits in committee, where it landed after the House passed it by a 3-1 margin. The full Senate seems likely to approve CARA, if it gets sprung from the committee.

The act does not require any new money to fund it. Rather it is the revival of a decades-old promise that royalties from oil and gas drilling on federal property would go toward land preservation. In the meantime, the money has been used to help mask the country's deficit-spending habit, a maneuver that's no longer needed and ripe for Congress to fix.

Some Western-state senators in key positions see CARA as a federal land grab, although only a sixth of the money would go toward federal purchases, and acquisitions would require the consent of both the owner and Congress. Far more would get funneled to the states, to set their own balance between buying land and improving existing public spaces.

One of CARA's most exciting aspects, in fact, is the ability to focus on smaller projects than the federal government normally would, including urban green spaces, walkways and small slices of important habitat. For those with visions of a walkable riverfront in Detroit, or selective preservation of natural spots in the path of development, CARA is a dream come true--if the senators controlling its fate will set it free.

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