Whenever you, your friends or family walk in a national, state or local park, the chances are very good that the land you enjoy was purchased or improved by monies from the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

For the past 50 years, a portion of the revenue from the sales of oil and gas from your public lands was returned to you in the form of outdoor recreation places to hunt, fish, hike and enjoy.

That fair return to the American people has enjoyed decades of bipartisan support from Republicans and Democrats, but our divided Congress allowed the conservation fund to expire this fall. Now many of our public lands are at risk if our new Congress doesn’t act with urgency.

The fund has the potential to unify Republicans and Democrats in the 116th Congress. Our California representatives should work across party lines and make it a priority to pass legislation to reauthorize and fully fund this vital conservation program.

From the soaring sandstone cliffs of Zion National Park to the mangrove forests and freshwater marshes of the Everglades National Park, the conservation fund has been vital to protecting irreplaceable natural, cultural and historic lands in every corner of the United States.

More than 41,000 state and local park projects that provide close-to-home recreation opportunities to nearly every county across the nation depend on funding from the conservation fund. California alone has received approximately $2.447 billion over the past five decades, protecting places such as the Lake Tahoe Basin, California Desert, Point Reyes National Seashore, Headwaters Forest, the San Diego and Don Edwards national wildlife refuges, and the national forests of the Sierra Nevada.

This celebrated conservation and recreation fund — appropriately referred to as America’s best parks program — has been a bipartisan mission from Day 1. Teddy Roosevelt’s original vision to protect our outdoor recreation opportunities was carried forward by the actions of many of his successors including Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson.

These leaders understood that protecting the places we love should not be about politics. Their commitment to the great outdoors helped secure the most extensive network of open spaces in the world as well as the conservation fund, which continues to be a lynchpin in protecting and securing access to these natural treasures.

As a lifelong outdoor enthusiast and 40-year career veteran of the National Park Service, I have had the privilege of recreating in and managing some of the most spectacular resources protected by the fund. From helping to conserve our world-class national parks to protecting outdoor recreation opportunities, community gathering spaces and essential wildlife refuges, the fund has had a profound impact on every community and every person in this country.

Despite strong support for the conservation fund emanating from every geographic region of the country, in red and blue states alike, this critical piece of legislation has expired. Though the House Committee on Natural Resources came to a unanimous and bipartisan agreement that would permanently reauthorize the fund, Congress failed to take further action during the last legislative session.

It is my hope that this session will be different, that our leaders on Capitol Hill will listen to the voices of their constituents and make it a priority to protect access to our shared public lands and national treasures.

Jonathan Jarvis served as the 18th director of the U.S. National Park Service from 2009-17. He is currently executive director of UC Berkeley’s Institute for Parks, People and Biodiversity.