In an obscene attempt to privatize our public lands, the Bush administration
proposes to auction to the highest bidder "isolated" forestland to pay for rural schools.
Hundreds of thousands of acres will be chopped out of Bitterroot National Forest, the Columbia Gorge, and many other national treasures. If this scheme is allowed to proceed, year after year, we can expect our public lands to be sold to make up for the Bush-created national deficit.
There are only 27 days left for public comments about this proposal! It is urgent that we get as many comments AGAINST this proposal on the record! Please recommend this diary.
What can you do to stop this?
- ONLY 27 DAYS LEFT! We are now in the 30-day comment period for this proposal. It is essential that you take a few minutes to write your own reasons why this proposal should be scrapped. Even if it is short, your comments will be entered into the Federal record and taken seriously. Form letters are given less weight than your own carefully worded letter. Postal mail is better than e-mail.
Comments on the proposed list must be received by March 30 and may be sent by e-mail to SRS_Land_Sales@fs.fed.us. Written comments may be sent to: USDA Forest Service, SRS Comments, Lands 4S, 1400 Independence Ave., SW, Mailstop 1124, Washington, DC, 20250-0003. Send faxed comments to (202) 205-1604.
At a minimum, please send email to SRS_Land_Sales@fs.fed.us with the subject "SRS Comments". Write a few sentences asking that this entire scheme be scrapped. Include your name and address at the bottom.
The fact that Bush has limited comments to only 30 days indicates he plans to try to push this through. And I know that some in the GOP have even come out against this (good), but it is very important that we invoke a thunderstorm of comments against this... it might make them think twice the next time they attack our public lands!
- Take 1 minute to write to your congressional reps to stop this nonsense.
- Tell your friends! Send them a link to this page. And please "rec it up"!
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The photograph above is an 80-acre tract of Flathead National Forest land that is proposed for sale. How "worthless" does that land look to you?
Even if you agree with the idea of selling our public land, consider:
[link] A Bush administration plan to sell more than 300,000 acres of national forest to help pay for rural schools contains a disproportionate amount of land in the South and Midwest _ while primarily benefiting schools in three West Coast states, a new analysis shows.
Nearly 60,000 acres in 13 Southern states and another 50,000 acres in 10 Midwestern states would be sold under the plan, while just 18,000 acres in forest-rich Oregon and Washington would be sold, according to an analysis by the Southern Environmental Law Center.
You can now use the complicated tool to view precisely what lands Bush wants to sell. It's difficult to use, so I have done some of the legwork. You can also see how many acres your state will lose more generally.
In the following maps, the areas bordered by green are slated for sale by the Federal Government. These few maps are only a fraction of the 800,000 acres proposed for sale nationwide, and only a fraction even within Oregon.
That's the Gorge in Oregon. Locals will recognize Eagle Creek, a popular hiking trail. Well, lands near it are for sale. And, really, how "isolated" are these tracts? They are cleaved directly off a main forest area, in a National Scenic Area. Just imagine: if lands in the Gorge are deemed "worthless", what other vital lands are for sale in other states?
Above Detroit Lake, also in Oregon, on the Upper Santiam (a great kayaking spot), we see more "isolated" and "worthless" lands slated for sale.
And around Oregon's Bend, more lands for sale.
I suppose Oregon should count itself lucky, of course. California has it much worse. That state has 80,000+ acres for sale. Please note the scale of the above map... you are seeing Medford all the way down past Mt Shasta. The public land for sale just in this area is several thousand acres of important forest.
Poor lake Tahoe... the "valueless" lands in its National Forest are up for sale.
And Colorado gets hit, too.
It would be great if readers could identify some lands near your home for sale with the Fed tool and post them as comments here...