Cherokee Forest land, Other National Forests May Be For Sale
Feb. 10, 2007

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.- A Bush administration plan to sell nearly 300,000 acres of national forests, including land in the Cherokee National Forest, failed to go anywhere last year but is back on president's proposed 2008 budget.

The sale would raise $800 million for the reauthorization of the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-determination Act of 2000, a subsidies program for rural schools, fire departments and roads.

Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., who called the first plan "dead on arrival" in Congress, said Friday it still is a bad idea. His southeastern Tennessee district includes the Cherokee National Forest in Polk and Bradley counties.

"They've just come up with a new way of proposing this bad idea," Wamp said. "This is still like selling the back 40 to pay the rent. It's driven by timber interests."

Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander also opposed the plan last year and called it "shortsighted thinking."

Mark Rey, undersecretary of Natural Resources and Environment for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said the new plan is not recycled.

"It was a good idea last year, and it's a better idea this year," he said. "But more to the point, it's the only idea on the table."

The Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-determination Act expired Dec. 31. Rey said the department sees the new proposal as a one-time money-raising effort to help counties transition as they find new revenue.

As part of the act, some Tennessee counties - including Polk and Monroe - over the past five years received about $2.6 million. Polk County received $620,140, and Monroe County received $646,066.

The subsidies also may be used for roads and firefighting in counties where declining timber harvests on federal lands mean less local tax revenue.

The new proposal directs half of the sale receipts to be earmarked for rural counties, while the other half is earmarked for land acquisition.

The portion of the money intended for land purchases would remain within the state where it was collected, Rey said.