Environmental advocates are cheering the signing into law of a sprawling natural resources bill that permanently re-authorizes the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund and furnishes certain local waterways with a national “wild and scenic” designation.

With President Donald Trump’s signing of the John D. Dingell Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act on Tuesday, a 62-mile portion of the lower Farmington River and Salmon Brook, which winds its way through 10 towns and includes an 8.1-mile portion that runs through Windsor, is designated as a national Wild and Scenic River, ensuring its free-flowing nature will be maintained. The designation also carries the possibility of up to $100,000 in federal funding annually to help with conservation efforts.

Sally Rieger, chairman of the Lower Farmington River and Salmon Brook Wild and Scenic River Study Committee, was thrilled with the news Wednesday.

“The committee is very excited,” she said. “It’s a wonderful outcome after 12 years of hard work on the committee, and the efforts of a lot of people.”

Rieger praised the work of U.S. Sen. Christopher S. Murphy, D-Conn., who has tried to achieve the designation since he arrived in Congress in 2007. A spokesperson from Murphy’s office said the bill reaching the final step of becoming law was “very exciting,” and said a celebratory event in the state likely would occur sometime in the spring.

Rieger said achieving the designation doesn’t mean the committee’s work is finished, however. The committee now will transition into an advisory capacity and help figure out how the funding will be spent. She said the funding likely would be used in similar ways to how it’s been used by the Farmington River Coordinating Committee on the upper part of the river, which has had the wild and scenic designation since 1994.

That committee has used the funding for various educational and conservation programs, including river steward programs, grants for river restoration projects, scholarships, and the acquisition of land parcels with river frontage.

The new law also includes a wild and scenic designation for Rhode Island’s Wood-Pawcatuck Watershed, which includes rivers that cross North Stonington, Sterling, Stonington, and Voluntown.

U.S. Rep. Joseph D. Courtney, D-Conn., said the designation would bring “much-needed funding for research and conservation to our own natural treasure in Connecticut and Rhode Island.”

The new law, which earned bipartisan support in large part due to its inclusion of public lands bills from all over the country, also permanently re-authorizes the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which, since 1964, has used revenues from offshore oil and gas drilling to preserve public lands and waterways.

Amanda Schoen, deputy director of the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters, said Wednesday the fund has been “critical” to protecting beaches, trails, and parks across the state, including the Meigs Point Nature Center at Hammonasset Beach State Park, and improvements at Peoples State Forest in Barkhamsted.

“Knowing these funds are here to stay provides more opportunities to preserve open space, acquire new property, and make improvements to beloved parks across Connecticut,” she said.

Patrick Comins, executive director of the Connecticut Audubon Society, also was thrilled about the bill becoming law, saying the organization’s highest national policy priority had been the permanent re-authorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

“No longer will we need to fight from year to year for the reauthorization of this important funding source for land conservation nationally,” he said.