Forest Land on The Block
By Michael Doyle, Sacramento Bee
February 11, 2006

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration on Friday proposed selling as many as 85,465 acres of national forest land in California, prompting harsh reactions from lawmakers across the political spectrum.

The California acres that could be getting new "for sale" signs include isolated chunks of the Tahoe, Stanislaus and Sequoia national forests. They are part of a much larger administration package designed to raise $800 million for rural schools.

"We appreciate that conveying federal land out of public ownership is a sensitive issue," Undersecretary of Agriculture Mark Rey told reporters Friday.

That's an understatement.

"I think it's absolutely ridiculous," said Merced Democrat Dennis Cardoza, a member of the House Agriculture Committee. "I've never been in support of selling hard assets to pay for day-to-day operations."

Cardoza predicted Friday that the administration's plan was "going to be a hard sell" in Congress. The skepticism was apparent even before the full plan was unveiled, and with a 30-day public comment period just starting.

"I do have preliminary concerns," said Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho. "Public lands are an asset that needs to be managed and conserved."

Craig co-wrote the 2000 rural schools funding law that the administration's new plan would replace. The current Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act expires Sept. 30, drying up the stream of federal funds upon which rural schools have come to rely.

It's been a generous law until now, sending out some $1.6 billion nationwide. California alone last year picked up about $69 million of the total. The guaranteed funds support schools that once depended on timber harvest revenues from local federally owned lands. As those federal harvests declined during the 1990s, school funding suffered.

A far-flung National Forest Counties and Schools Coalition already has been lobbying to renew the existing funding bill on behalf of members ranging from the Fresno County Office of Education to Sierra Pacific Industries.

With the current law ending, and money tight all over, administration officials took a different tack. Counties still would be paid, but the pot of money gradually would shrink and the federal spending would be offset by the sale of public lands.

The administration's plan identifies 309,421 acres nationwide that may be subject to sale over the next five years. Forest Service officials calculate that the $800 million being sought for rural schools could be obtained by selling about 175,000 acres of the total.

"We have a list that is more than adequate to meet our revenue needs," Rey said.

Some forests would be sliced up more than others. In the central Sierra Nevada, the potential sales list ranges from 4,513 acres of the Stanislaus National Forest to a modest 298 acres of the Sequoia National Forest. By far, Northern California forests provide the state's biggest share, with the Klamath National Forest responsible for more than one-third of California's total potential sale.

"Essentially, this is the low-hanging fruit," said Carl Holguin, a spokesman for the Forest Service's Pacific Southwest region in California. "This is a preliminary list, and we'll be sharpening our pencils."

Regional headquarters staff used their own maps and computers to draft the original proposals, Holguin said, with individual forest managers then screening the results. Officials say they were looking for land that's set apart from other Forest Service holdings.

"In some cases, these are part of Forest Service ownership more as an accident of history than anything else," Rey said. But John Buckley, executive director of the Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center in Twain Harte, voiced the view of many environmentalists in contending that selling the federal land would open the property to development or widespread logging.

"A stable funding source must be provided," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said, "but not at the expense of our wilderness."

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, and as defined under the provisions of "fair use", any copyrighted material herein is distributed without profit or payment for non-profit research and for educational use by our membership.

Forest Land Sale Proposal Assailed
By Michael Doyle, Sacramento Bee
February 10, 2006

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration today is unveiling plans to sell tens of thousands of acres of national forest land in California as part of a new and controversial bid to fund rural schools.

The scattered California parcels are part of a nationwide sales package slated to raise an estimated $800 million. Plucked throughout the Sierra and from most of the state's 18 national forests, the California parcels are the kind of land Forest Service officials say they won't miss.

"These are acres that don't meet national forest needs, that are hard to manage and that are isolated," Undersecretary of Agriculture Mark Rey said Thursday. "In some cases, people don't even realize they are part of the national forest."

Rey, who oversees the Forest Service, indicated 150,000 to 200,000 acres nationwide are likely to be proposed for sale. Culled from recommendations made by individual forest managers, the parcels being proposed today will be open for public comment for 30 days before the package is sent to Congress.

Congress, though, need not go along, and environmentalists are already fighting the idea.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., attacked the plan as "crazy," saying: "Here the administration wants to pass more tax cuts for the rich, and to pay the bill, they want to sell off public land - our nation's natural heritage."

"We have major, major concerns about this," said John Buckley, executive director of the Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center in Twain Harte. "If the land goes out of public ownership, it clearly means it will be less protected."

Some isolated Forest Service land, Buckley noted, is in the midst of property owned by major timber companies such as Sierra Pacific.

These parcels could be bought and clear-cut once they are in private hands, he said. Other isolated Forest Service parcels could be sold to join nearby residential or recreational developments.

If Congress does accept the package, the land sold would be a small fraction of the 193 million acres owned by the Forest Service nationwide. In California, the agency owns 20 million acres; the proposed sale parcels would likewise only be a sliver of the state's total, and they are spread out.

"Virtually all of the forests in California are contributing," said Matt Mathes, a spokesman for the Forest Service's Pacific Southwest office.

The money raised from selling the land over five years would help fill up school coffers that now depend on the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act. That law expires Sept. 30.

Urged on by educators like Alpine County Unified School District Superintendent James Parsons, Congress passed the rural school funding bill in 2000. Because declining timber harvests had undermined the previous system of tying federal dollars to harvest levels, the 2000 law guaranteed rural counties a set funding level based on past harvests.

"It was a time-limited authorization, to help counties adjust," Rey said. "It's our judgment that while some counties had adjusted, others have not."

It's also expensive. In 2005, the federal government provided $393 million through the rural schools program, including $67 million to California. Counties with national forest land don't want to give this money up. Fresno County, for instance, received $2.7 million last year, while Tuolumne County got $2.5 million and El Dorado County $4 million.

To update the expiring law, officials needed to come up with more money. That's where the idea of selling off land came in, though Forest Service officials quickly realized they would need congressional approval.

"We couldn't find $800 million in spending cuts," Rey said, "so we looked at revenue raisers."

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, and as defined under the provisions of "fair use", any copyrighted material herein is distributed without profit or payment for non-profit research and for educational use by our membership.

Forestland Sell-Off Plan Includes 1,370 Local Acres
By Paul Fattig, Medford Mail Tribune
February 11, 2006

The Bush administration proposes selling nearly 200,000 acres of national forestland, including 10,581 acres in Oregon, to fund counties and schools undercut by lost timber revenues.

The proposal, which could auction off up to 1,370 acres in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, is an effort to raise up to $800 million nationwide to extend the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act funding for five more years.

The act expires at the end of the current fiscal year on Sept. 30.

In a media teleconference call Friday morning, Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey said the land to be sold includes isolated parcels that no longer meet U.S. Forest Service needs and are expensive to manage.

Although some 309,000 acres have been tagged as eligible to sell, Rey said he expects less than 200,000 acres would have to be sold to raise the $800 million.

"This is a reasonable proposal to take a small fraction of a percentage of national land which is the least necessary and use it for those in need and achieve an important overarching public purpose," Rey said, although acknowledging it is a "sensitive" issue.

To the latter, Steve Pedery, wildlands advocate for the Oregon Natural Resources Coalition, would agree.

"The Bush administration is turning its back on the legacy of Teddy Roosevelt," he said. "These lands are a part of America’s natural heritage, and they should be preserved as a legacy for our children and grandchildren."

The administration’s ultimate goal is to privatize federal forestlands, added Bend resident Scott Silver, executive director of Wild Wilderness and a Democratic candidate for the 2nd Congressional District.

"Once they sell off what they are calling isolated bits and pieces, they will just dig deeper to sell off more," Silver said. "This administration is draining the Treasury, putting us into hock, so it can say with a straight face that we have no money and there is no other solution but to privatize."

But Rey, who directs U.S. forest policy, observed that the agency purchases an average 100,000 acres each year. The ongoing acquisition program would quickly negate the potential land sales, he said.

"In the broad scheme of things, we will probably net out these conveyances in less than two years," he said.

In addition to the Rogue-Siskiyou, other local forests affected would be the Fremont-Winema with 1,497 acres offered and the Umpqua with 40 acres proposed for sale.

The administration calls for selling 85,465 acres of national forestland in California and 7,516 acres in Washington.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management also plans to sell federal lands to raise an estimated $250 million over five years.

However, no BLM property is included in this proposal, according to a spokeswoman for the BLM’s Medford District.

The first screening to identify potential national forestland to sell was very broad, said Lorette Ray, spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service’s regional office in Portland.

"The guidelines were that they needed to be under 640 acres and on the outer edge of the forest boundary," she said.

The public will have 30 days to comment on the proposal after it is posted in the Federal Register near the end of the month. Following the comment period, the list will be revised to reflect public sentiment, she said.

If the proposal is approved by Congress, a base price will be established for each parcel that will then be offered in a competitive auction, Rey said.

"Our objective ... will be to give everyone involved the ability to look at each and every tract," Rey said, adding that the process will be open and above-board.

In the region

Uncle Sam proposes to sell 17 parcels totaling 1,370 acres in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest.

Those parcels would include six tracts totaling 280 acres in the Butte Falls-Prospect ranger districts, three parcels adding up to 260 acres in the Applegate-Ashland ranger districts, five parcels totaling 470 acres in the Gold Beach-Chetco ranger districts and three tracts representing 360 acres in the Powers district.

For further information, see www.fs.fed.us/land/staff/rural_schools.shtml on the Web

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, and as defined under the provisions of "fair use", any copyrighted material herein is distributed without profit or payment for non-profit research and for educational use by our membership.