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Conservationists Rap Plan to Sell National Forest Land: Uwharrie Would Lose About 5%; Groups Fear Wildlife Would Suffer

Posted on: Wednesday, 15 February 2006, 06:00 CST

By Bruce Henderson, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.

Feb. 15--A U.S. Forest Service plan to sell nearly 15,000 acres in the Carolinas could undermine efforts to link the fragmented pieces of the states' national forests, conservationists say.

The service late last week proposed the biggest sale of public forests in decades. While the proposal lists the acreage to be sold -- more than 300,000 acres nationwide -- maps showing precise locations won't be out for weeks.

Conservation groups fear tracts around the ragged edges of the forests, valuable to wildlife and plants, will go on the block.

"It just goes completely against what common sense would tell you needs to happen," said Dr. David Jones, director of the N.C. Zoo in Asheboro. "Instead of selling off land, they need to be stitching it up."

Jones believes the Uwharrie National Forest, 50 miles east of Charlotte and a few miles from the zoo, could become the hub of a woodsy playground for well-to-do city dwellers.

But the Uwharrie would lose the biggest proportion of its acreage -- about 5 percent -- of any forest in the state under the Forest Service plan. North Carolina would lose more forestland than any other southeastern state.

Parcels proposed for sale include the pristine watershed and rare plant communities of the Little River, abutting the Uwharrie's Birkhead Mountains Wilderness, Jones said. Another tract is near the boundary of the 500-acre zoo. Forest Service officials couldn't immediately verify those tracts are on the sale list.

The Bush administration's 2007 budget plans to raise $800 million by selling the national forests acreage and other public land. Carolinas' parcels range from less than an acre to more than 500 acres. Terry Seyden, a Forest Service spokesman in Asheville, said the Washington and regional offices identified which N.C. tracts to sell.

The criteria: isolated tracts, surrounded by private land, that were difficult to manage.

The money would temporarily continue a program that helps pay for schools and roads in rural counties thick with forests. N.C. counties got about $1 million from the program last year, South Carolina $3.2 million.

Swain County, where the federal government owns 87 percent of the rugged mountains and valleys, got about $18,000 from the program last year. But the proposed sales could open 790 acres to development, adding to the county's slim tax base.

"As long as the money from the sale goes back to the community, we wouldn't have a problem with it," said Swain County manager Kevin King. "We wouldn't want the money going to California or Nevada, put it that way."

Congress could block the plan. Last year lawmakers buried proposals to sell 15 national parks and other federal lands.

Steve Henson, executive director of the Southern Appalachian Multiple-Use Council, which advocates for timber harvests in the national forests, said he sees no harm in the proposal.

But considering the derailments of previous proposals, he added, "I'm not sure it's going to get any legs at all."

A public comment period begins Feb. 28. Opposition is likely to come from conservationists who believe the Carolinas need more, not less, wild land. In 2000, N.C. legislators set a goal of putting aside an additional 1 million acres of open space.

"To me, it's a giveaway of public lands and they're couching it in terms of schools, which sounds like a good thing," said Charlotte resident Deanna Spake, who hikes forest trails.

"If they cut back on those areas, especially the ones that are near urban areas, then they're just going to be destroying our animals and plants. We can't let that happen."

How to Comment

Visit www.fs.fed.us/land/ staff/rural_schools.shtml. The Forest Service will accept public comments once it publishes a Federal Register notice about the proposal, with maps, on about Feb. 28.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.

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Australia:DJS,

Source: The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.)

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