Bush Plan to Sell Acreage in National Forest Draws Fire

By Tony Bartelme, The Post and Courier, Charleston, S.C.

Feb. 15–The Bush administration wants to sell a fraction of America’s public forestland, including less than 1 percent of the Francis Marion National Forest. But the proposal has touched off intense political brush fires here and across the country.

One Lowcountry congressman said this week that the plan is designed to protect tax cuts for the wealthy. Conservation groups fear it will undercut efforts to protect the Francis Marion and other national forests from encroaching development.

The administration’s proposal would barely make a dent in the U.S. Forest Service’s 193 million acres of public land. But it is still ground-breaking in its breadth.

Unveiled last week, the plan calls for the sale of more than 307,000 acres in national forestland in 32 states — an area 50,000 acres larger than the entire Francis Marion. Proceeds, estimated at $800 million or more, would be used to continue a program that dishes out subsidies to rural counties.

In South Carolina, the administration targeted 4,569 acres, including 1,095 acres in the Francis Marion. If Congress sides with the administration — it has rejected similar plans in the past — the plan would amount to the largest sale of its kind since President Theodore Roosevelt established the U.S. Forest Service in 1905.

The administration has yet to release maps pinpointing the land in question, but an examination of Forest Service data and maps for the Francis Marion show:

–Four parcels totaling 485 acres are on S.C. Highway 45 just east of St. Stephen, near the Corps of Engineers’ Rediversion Canal to the Santee River. State maps show some of this area is wetlands.

–Other parcels are near Macedonia, near Walleye Swamp, and an area known as Charley Bridges.

–Also earmarked is a 16-acre plot near the Keystone tract, a 4,500-acre area snapped up last year by a development company.

U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., criticized the administration for trying to sell federal land to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy.

“What’s going on is as clear to me as the sun hanging in the sky,” said Clyburn, whose district includes the Francis Marion and Sumter national forests. “Who do you think is going to buy all this land? His (Bush’s) friends and cronies.”

U.S. Rep. Henry Brown, R-S.C., whose district also includes the Francis Marion, said he needed to study the issue before taking a firm position and encouraged constituents to comment. Describing the Francis Marion as “the greatest asset we’ve got in the Lowcountry,” he said, “it’s still early in the (legislative) process, and I don’t think (the plan) is going to amount to much.”

Randy Maatta, a Democratic candidate running against Brown, said the administration’s plan is “a slap in the face to every South Carolinian” that will “open the door to more sprawl and runaway growth.”

The administration said it chose land that was difficult to manage, was isolated from other federal lands and had no scenic or wildlife importance. “These are not the crown jewels we are talking about,” Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey told reporters last week.

Conservation groups and others said the proposal sets a bad precedent. “There is no parcel in the Francis Marion that is unimportant,” said Jane Lareau of the Coastal Conservation League.

She said some parcels might not be contiguous to larger tracts of national forestland, but they still provide important ecological benefits. Moreover, she said, local Forest Service officials have traded isolated tracts for ones closer to the forest’s interior. The president’s plan would destroy this bargaining chip, she said.

The Forest Service plans to publish maps of the proposed sale areas on its Web site Feb. 28 and receive comments on which ones to remove. Congress would then take up the matter.

The administration proposed the sales because of declining revenue from logging on national forests. The Forest Service gives some of this revenue to rural counties for schools, roads and other projects. Last year, South Carolina counties received $3.25 million, with the most, $700,000, going to Berkeley County, Stephanie Neal Johnson, a Forest Service spokeswoman said.

The stakes are especially high out west. In California, more than 85,000 acres are targeted for sale, and state lawmakers have vowed to kill the plan.

—–

To see more of The Post and Courier, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.charleston.net.

Copyright (c) 2006, The Post and Courier, Charleston, S.C.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.