Web posted March 1, 2006
Forest land sale to pay for schools
By MATTHEW DALY
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Lawmakers said the short-term gains would be offset by the permanent loss of public lands. They also said profits from the proposed sales would fall far short of what's needed to help rural governments pay for schools and other basic services.
"I just don't think we can play Russian roulette with these local communities," said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who vowed to stop the plan.
Wyden and Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho were co-sponsors of a 2000 law that has pumped more than $2 billion into rural counties hurt by logging cutbacks on federal land. The so-called "county payments" law has helped offset sharp declines in timber sales in Oregon and other Western states in the wake of federal forest policy that restricts logging to protect endangered species such as the spotted owl.
The law is set to expire Sept. 30. The land-sale plan would reauthorize the law for five years, but calls for a phased reduction in funding to zero by 2011.
Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, who directs U.S. forest policy, called the proposed cutbacks painful but necessary. The law was never intended to be permanent, he said, but was a way to help rural counties make the transition from dependence on timber receipts to a more broad-based economy.
The lands proposed for sale are isolated; difficult or expensive to manage; and no longer meet Forest Service needs, Rey said.
The proposal would give states, counties and land trusts the first chance to buy Forest Service land offered for sale, Rey said. Remaining parcels would be sold to the highest bidder.
"We think this is justified as a one-time transition to help rural schools" for five more years before eliminating the program, Rey told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Rey's comments met with bipartisan derision.
|
