Bush Plan to Sell Public Lands Assailed

By Noelle Straub
Knight Ridder / Tribune Business News

Thursday 02 March 2006

Washington - Forest Service officials and Western lawmakers battled Tuesday over an administration proposal that would sell national forest lands to help pay for a rural schools program, as the vital 30-day public comment period began.

Agriculture Under Secretary Mark Rey defended the program but faced skeptical questions from senators of both parties during testimony before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Congress must approve the proposal before any land could be sold.

President Bush's 2007 budget proposed to fund payments over five years to counties under the Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act by selling off up to $800 million worth of National Forest System lands.

The act, designed to provide transitional assistance to rural counties affected by declining revenue from timber harvests on federal lands, is set to expire at the end of this year unless Congress renews it.

The Forest Service has identified 300,000 acres of land that could be offered for sale, although Rey said only about 175,000 acres would probably be needed to raise enough money.

In Montana, 13,948 acres are potentially for sale in the Beaverhead, Bitterroot, Custer, Deerlodge, Flathead, Gallatin, Helena, Kootenai, Lewis and Clark and Lolo forests.

In Wyoming, 17,619 acres are potentially for sale in the Black Hills, Medicine Bow and Bridger-Teton forests and the Thunder Basin National Grassland.

Forest Service officials said they had posted detailed maps of every parcel on its Web site Tuesday so the public could examine them and make comments, but technical glitches plagued the site and the maps could not be seen for much of the day.

The Forest Service also on Tuesday published a notice in the Federal Register seeking comments until March 30. Rey said the agency will rework the suggested list of parcels for sale after the comment period, before presenting it to Congress.

Montana and Wyoming members of Congress support the Rural Schools Act and want it to be renewed, but they generally say a different funding source must be found.

Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., has called the land-sales proposal "dead in the water." Asked about it Tuesday, he replied, "I'm opposed to it. That's it." Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., has been urging Montanans to unite to fight the proposal, and Rep. Dennis Rehberg, R-Mont., objected to the land sales in a letter to Bush last week.



Go to Original

83,816 Acres of Sierra Nevada Forest Slated for Sale in Bush Proposal
YubaNet.com

Friday 10 February 2006

Selling National Forest lands to make up for lost timber revenue?

Innocuously entitled the 'Amendment to Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000', a proposal from the Bush administration seeks to raise up to $800 million by selling off approximately 306,628 acres of National Forest lands. The Sierra Nevada region is bearing the biggest brunt of the proposed privatization of public lands in California.

The proposal includes over 85,000 acres in California, 25,000 acres in Idaho, 21,000 acres in Colorado and 21,000 acres in Missouri.

Many of the lands up for sale are larger than 400 acres - one in Virginia is over 900 acres - and provide important green space and wildlife habitat, according to the Unified Forest Defense Campaign.

The proceeds from the sales of public land would be used to continue funding rural counties traditionally dependent on royalties from timber harvested in federal forests. But the funding of programs in these communities will be phased out gradually over 5 years. By 2011 only 20% of the current guaranteed funding would be distributed to local communities.

Basically, the Bush budget proposal will sell public forest lands to the highest bidders to make up for lost timber harvest royalties.

The impact of the pilot program on smaller rural counties is hardly negligible. In 2004, Sierra County received $1.8 million under the provisions of the 2000 law. Without the stabilizing influence of the cash-generating program, the county would only have received $273,000 from timber harvest operation on public lands within the county.

Likewise, Nevada County received $770,000 in 2004, as opposed to only $126,000 had the program not been in effect.

"Education of rural school children, that's an investment in the nation's future," Agriculture Under Secretary Mark Rey said during the telephone press conference when asked if 'selling off public lands could be equated to eating the seed corn.'

Rey stated that only half of the proposed acreage was probably needed to reach the $800 million funding goal. He also stressed that the list of parcels was compiled "with the help of the forest supervisors and foresters."

The Forest Service will be publishing a notice in the Federal Register around February 28th, requesting comments from the public. At that time, more detailed maps will be available for all lands identified as potentially slated for sale. After the 30 day comment period, the proposal will be sent to Congress for authorization.

Sierra Nevada Forests Heavily Impacted

The complete list of "candidate parcels", published by the Forest Service today, shows a heavy impact on California forests. 85,465 acres from the Angeles to the Klamath National Forest may find their way into private ownership.

The Sierra Nevada region is bearing the biggest brunt of the proposed privatization of public lands in California.

Proposed Acreage by Sierra Nevada Forest

* Stanislaus - 4,531 acres
* Eldorado - 2,184 acres
* Tahoe - 2,122 acres
* Plumas - 19,436 acres
* Lassen - 14,051 acres
* Trinity - 630 acres
* Six Rivers- 2,523 acres
* Shasta - 5,436 acres
* Klamath - 32,921 acres
* Total: 83,816 acres

US Senator Dianne Feinstein, reacting to the news, said, "The plan is a terrible idea based on a misguided sense of priorities. First, the administration is proposing to sell off public lands to help finance the President's budget. And secondly, the administration plans to ratchet down and then terminate an important program that has been the life-blood for rural schools in California and many other states. I will do everything I can to defeat this effort. I understand that between 400-500 parcels totaling over 85,000 acres in 16 different National Forests have been identified by the Bush administration for possible sale in California. If the Forest Service truly does not want these parcels, then I urge that they be considered for land exchanges to acquire beautiful areas facing development threats. California's remaining wildlands are diminishing at a rapid rate and we need, at the very least, to keep what we have, not to sell them off to the highest bidder."

State Wild and Scenic Rivers Corridors Not Protected

The candidate list excludes lands with certain designations (including wilderness, national wild and scenic rivers, national recreation areas, monuments and historic sites.) YubaNet.com asked Dan Jiron, spokesperson for the US Forest Service, if the same protection would be extended to state wild and scenic river corridors. "State wild and scenic designation was not considered," Jiron said.

Neither lands within the quarter-mile corridor nor access to these rivers will benefit from any special protection from sell-offs.

All parcels on the candidate list are not eligible for land exchange programs, but could be acquired by conservation groups or commercial entities.

State Senator Sheila Kuehl, Chair of the California Natural Resources and Water Committee, feels that State Wild & Scenic designation should be respected. "Our Attorney General should protect the status, as a state we have the right to protect our rivers," Kuehl told YubaNet.com. "The appropriate way to fund rural schools is through the General Fund. In reality this is just an excuse not to allocate real money to education and the Bush administration dresses up their desire to sell off public lands to the mining and logging industry when there is no need for it. It is completely inappropriate to sell these lands. If truly these lands are 'not suitable' for the National Forest system, they should be given over to state, local or non-profit trusts for conservation, not sold off for development or logging."

Land Rezoning Possible

Rezoning of pristine parcels for development or timber harvest is a distinct possibility. According to Rey, the federal government will leave any zoning changes to local authorities.