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Bush Administration's Proposed Sale of National Forests, Other Budget Priorities Shameful The Bush administration recently proposed auctioning off hundreds of thousands of acres of public land managed by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to raise federal revenues in its FY 2007 budget. The administration is hoping to sell National Forest lands from California to West Virginia raising as much as $800 million over 5 years; they are hoping to raise $250 million from the sale of BLM lands. The Forest Service is maintaining a list of potential properties for sale at: http://www.fs.fed.us/land/staff/spd.html In response to the proposed land sales, the Sierra Club's issued the following statement from Executive Director Carl Pope: "The Bush administration's proposal to auction off National Forest and other lands is shameful. These lands not only belong to you and me, but they also belong to future generations, and they should not be sold off to the highest bidder for development. "This proposal is the latest in a series of disturbing proposals coming from the Bush administration and its allies in Congress to give oil, mining, timber and real estate speculators increased access to pristine natural areas. Last fall, House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo suggested selling off more than a dozen of the nation's National Parks and attempted to insert language in the federal budget that would have let mining and real estate companies buy millions of acres of federal land at rock bottom prices. "If the federal government truly believes it's desperate for revenue, there are better ways to balance the books. Maybe it's time to reconsider the billions of dollars in subsidies and tax breaks that the administration and Congress awarded to oil industry just last year despite the fact that the industry had record profits. Or ask Alaska to give back hundreds of millions of tax dollars rather than spend them on two Bridges to Nowhere. America's public lands are the nation's natural endowment and they ought to be managed with long term stewardship, not carelessly cast off for a quick buck. “The administration’s budget request for the Forest Service continues a trend of misplaced priorities favoring resource extraction and privatization at the expense of good stewardship. Programs that support forest restoration, recreation, clean water, wildlife, and community protection are not receiving the support they need or that the American people expect and deserve. “The proposed FY 2007 Forest Service budget is $4.86 billion, $182.6 million (3.6%) less than the FY 2006 enacted level. Most programs will see funding reductions; however, timber sales subsidies are proposed for a large increase. The timber sale program would receive a $30 million (10.7 percent) increase. Since FY 2000, the forest products line-item has increased from $216 million to the proposed $310 million in FY 2007 -- a 43 percent increase. “Other misplaced budget priorities include the Forest Service’s plans to divert $23 million for new timber sales from the Knutson-Vandenburg (KV) Fund, which formerly was used to pay for reforestation costs and the restoration of logged over forests. In FY 2006, the agency diverted $40 million in KV funds it had deemed “surplus.” Other sources of funding for the timber sale program in FY 2007 include $70 million from the Salvage Sale Fund, $3 million from the Timber Sales Pipeline Restoration Fund, and $69.8 million for logging road construction and engineering support. The total estimated timber sale program cost by the agency is $475 million. “In Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, the Forest Service is proposing to close public-use cabins for lack of funding. At the same time, the Forest Service continues its money-losing Tongass logging program, including nearly 50 logging projects in roadless areas of the rainforest that will cost tens of millions of dollars every year. In FY 2006, the Forest Service received an extra $5 million for Tongass timber sale preparation, over and above the agency’s normal allocation for that purpose. Building roads and logging in wild forests is expensive and a waste of taxpayer funds. The planned loss of funds from the Emerald Bay roadless area timber sale alone will exceed the costs of operating the Tongass’ public cabins.” ### |
