National Forest land "bake sale" short-shrifts Southern states

Charlottesville, VA – The Bush Administration’s plan to sell off National Forest land cuts deeper into the South’s federal land base compared to other parts of the country, and would yield far less revenue for the region’s rural counties. The proposal, published in the Federal Register today, would pay to extend by five years a program to provide money to counties with non-taxable federal lands.

Announced earlier this month, the proposal has drawn quick and harsh opposition from a wide range of critics, including numerous leaders in Congress. In the South, critics include Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, editorial writers of most major newspapers, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, and many conservation organizations

The Administration’s list of parcels for sale contains a disproportionate amount of land in the South, which by comparison has much less federal land than out West. Losing these lands from the publicly owned national forest system will have a greater impact, said David Carr, Public Lands Director for the Southern Environmental Law Center.

“We need to be adding to the public-land base in the South, not holding a bake sale on bits and pieces of our limited national forests for short-term budget needs,” he said. “By most measures, we’re the fastest growing region in the country. Sprawl development is getting worse, while demand for backcountry recreation is increasing.”

Both North Carolina, with a total of 1.25 million acres of national forest, and Oregon, with a total of 15.55 million acres, have about 10,000 proposed for sale. Yet under the funding formula currently used, North Carolina would get just $1 million in 2006, while Oregon would get almost $163 million. On a broader scale, the U.S. Forest Service Southern Region, which extends from Florida to Texas to Virginia, has roughly 13 million acres of national forest land, and almost 60,000 acres on the for-sale list, while the region that comprises Oregon and Washington has twice as much national forest land but only 18,000 acres up for sale. Southern states would receive $37 million, while Oregon and Washington combined would get more than five times that - $210 million.

“Selling off America’s natural heritage is not the way to fund government services,” Carr said. “This move would set a dangerous precedent for years to come. It’s a reversal from the agency’s long-standing effort to add to the national forest system by acquiring important tracts that serve an ecological or recreational purpose.” SELC plans to send a letter of opposition to the agency as part of the public comment period, which runs through March 30.