Land Sale in Forest is Off, Keller Says

By Nin-Hai Tseng, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

May 10–A Bush administration proposal to sell almost 1,000 acres in the Ocala National Forest is dead, according to U.S. Rep. Ric Keller and environmentalists who blasted the idea as a shortsighted solution to raise money for rural counties.

Keller, R-Orlando, and other critics Tuesday applauded a House subcommittee’s decision not to include in a 2006-07 spending bill a plan to sell thousands of acres in national forests. The land sales would generate up to $800 million to help pay for roads and schools in rural areas including Lake and Marion counties.

“It effectively kills the sale of the Ocala National Forest,” Keller said. “I think it’s a dangerous precedent to sell off national forest lands whenever there’s a funding shortfall.”

Despite Keller’s glee, a U.S. Forest Service official said the proposal is still alive. Forest Service officials have said the 300,000 acres targeted in 35 states are remote and hard to maintain, representing only a sliver of 193 million acres of national forests.

“There are many steps left in the legislative process, and clearly there’s much work ahead,” said spokesman Dan Jiron, noting the proposal also must be considered by several other committees.

But Charles Lee, senior vice president of Audubon of Florida, said he doubts the plan will move forward.

“If it takes 16 nails to nail the coffin shut, this is probably number 14,” said Lee, who had worried parts of the Ocala forest would fall into the hands of private developers wanting to build vacation homes along some of its lakes.

Keith Schue of The Nature Conservancy also was pleased.

“I think it’s positive that this may be rejected,” Schue said.

In March, Lake County commissioners forwarded to the Forest Service a resolution opposing the sale of 973 acres in the Ocala forest. While most of that land is in Marion County, a nearly 24-acre parcel lies south of State Road 40 in the Astor area of Lake County. In all, the Ocala forest spans more than 383,000 acres.

State and local governments would have first shot at purchasing forest lands. Lake commissioners said they would be interested in buying the parcel in their county if it came to that.

Keller, who represents much of the forest, has been an outspoken foe of the land sales that the Forest Service says are necessary because timber sales that have been used to subsidize rural schools have fallen dramatically.

The congressman said the forest is irreplaceable, and any sale would be “environmentally reckless and financially shortsighted.”

The forest is home to the Florida black bear, which the state considers a threatened species. It is also a popular recreation spot for hunters, campers and canoeists.

Keller said the subcommittee’s rejection of the land sales is a first and important step to gutting the idea in Congress. As far as funding for schools in rural counties, he said lawmakers must look at other funding.

“I don’t have the answer right now,” he said.

The proposal has generated bipartisan outrage. U.S. Sens. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., and Bill Nelson, D-Fla., both lashed out at the proposal.

“Central Florida’s population is booming,” according to a March 6 letter the two senators, Keller and other House members from Florida wrote outlining their concerns.

“Waterfront property near the Ocala National Forest would be in high demand and growth would be difficult to control,” the letter said. “The long-term environmental and economic repercussions of this proposal are not worth the funds raised in the short-term.”

Nin-Hai Tseng can be reached at nhtseng@orlandosentinel.com or 352-742-5919.

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Copyright (c) 2006, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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