Preservation in the News

Perhaps the best thing that can be said about the Bush administration's proposal to sell off portions of national forests is that it evidently is going nowhere -- again.

That sounds about right. The public seemed to have little tolerance for the president's original recommendation to peddle up to 300,000 acres of forests, including 5,685 acres of North Carolina's national forest land, to offset a decline in revenue from timber sales that now goes to rural schools. Congress shared the public hostility toward the idea.

Last year's plan was to sell up to 10,000 acres from the four national forests in North Carolina. This year's proposal is smaller, but the idea isn't any better. The president proposed selling about 239 acres of the Croatan National Forest in Eastern North Carolina, about 800 acres of the Uwharrie National Forest in the Piedmont and about 4,800 acres of the Pisgah National Forest and the Nantahala National Forest in Western North Carolina.

The sales were proposed in the annual federal budget as part of a plan to raise $800 million for the schools and for land acquisition programs in the states.

The Bush administration's tinkering with its earlier proposal did eliminate some unpalatable aspects. For example, 600 acres in the Croatan National Forest were removed because they are the home of the red-cockaded woodpecker. Six acres in the Pisgah National Forest were dropped because they are close to scenic areas.

The trouble is that tinkering with the bad idea didn't make it a good idea. North Carolina doesn't need to have part of its federal forests sold off so that it can use part of the proceeds to buy more land or fund schools. Schools need long-term continuous funding. The sale of land would provide one-time revenue, and the public benefits that the land provides would be lost forever.

U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler, a Democrat from Waynesville, opposes the sale, saying rural schools do need the money but selling national forest land is the wrong way to provide it. A spokesman said Rep. Shuler's position is that "when things get tight around the house, you don't sell off the front yard." He's right.

The good news is that the proposal is, according to members of both political parties in Congress, dead on arrival. Congress sent the president that message last year, too. It's time he listened.