On Friday afternoon the Administration proposed the Forest Service’s largest public land sale in decades, listing 309,421 acres up for grabs to the highest bidder in more than 30 states. Over the next few weeks the Forest Service will be preparing maps to show the locations of the property which would become available for private ownership. See the accouncement of the Secure Rural Schools Forest Service FY 2007 Initiative.
The proposed land sale is part of the President’s 2007 budget, and would raise approximately $800 million to help pay for rural road and school costs. For the past century local communities have received a percentage of timber sales, but with declining timber sales on public forests this source of revenue is declining. The sale of public land would raise approximately $800 million to provide short-term funding.
Despite the comment by Agriculture Secretary Mark Rey that these lands "are not the crown jewels" and Forest Service spokeperson Heidi Valetkevitch’s statement that the "lands in question aren’t environmentally sensitive wilderness or protected scenic areas", our own quick review leads us to question the adequacy of their review. Several of the properties appear to be in sensitive riparian areas and provide important public access to waterways.
In Washington State the proposed lands for sale include 1300 acres of old-growth and late successional riparian forest along a remote river canyon on the Sultan River. This piece of forest represents incredibly rare low-elevation forest at the interface between the Puget Sound lowlands and the North Cascades. In Oregon a parcel along the Deschutes River is up for grabs. In Montana two parcels along the Flathead River between Kalispell and Columbia Falls are listed. In Wyoming property along the Hoback River is listed.
A list of property for sale will be published to the Federal Register at the end of the month and we will provide a specific Action Alert at that time but a preliminary list has been released. We are requesting help from our membership and volunteers in carefully examining this list to determine how the proposed sales could affect our interests.
Forest Service Lands Eligible for Sale.
Please contact us with any specific local knowledge you have of how these properties are used. In our comments we will primariliy focus on impacts to rivers but we will share any knowledge you have with other organizations we are working with on this issue.