Efforts to boost school funding are laudable, but cannibalizing another resource isn't the way to raise the cash. Undersecretary of Agriculture Mark Rey defended the proposed sale saying "education of rural school children, that's an investment in the nation's future as important as any other investment we could make. That purpose justifies the approach we're proposing." I disagree. Education is more important than many other investments being made by this administration, such as the earlier Bush tax cuts that are coming up for renewal. And when the the rising federal budget deficit is under constant discussion, you have to wonder why, on the watch of the man who vowed to leave no child behind, all that spending is missing school budgets.
Rey also said that the sales will help fund the Forest service, whose budget has also been on the decline. And what's the reason for that decline??? Republicans of the Bush/Rove stripe used to say "starve the beast!" Now apparently they want to dismember it at the same time.
Forest Service officials reassure skeptics of the sale that the proposed parcels are not scenically or ecologically significant. There may be truth to that, but it's still land where people can go to stretch their legs, and see something other than tract houses and parking lots. They point out too that this is only a fragment of NF holdings, and they have a point. The Ottawa alone comprises about 1 million acres. 6,000 acres may not represent a large chunk of that but those acres do contain some people's hunting spots, or berrypicking spots, or simply the spots where they found some space to sit quietly, away from the din of traffic. Withdrawn from the public domain, they represent a reduced opportunity for others to find those things. I fear that this sale would grease the slide for further ones, which would reduce those opportunities further. With projections of budget deficits into the future, where does it stop?
Before the sale can go ahead, it needs congressional approval, and representatives from many of the affected states, Republican and Democrat alike, have spoken out against it. On an outdoor discussion board I frequent, even die-hard Bush supporters felt he was out of line with this one. We can pray they represent a large swath of public opinion. A 30 day comment period begins on Feb. 28th, and hopefully that will generate a groundswell of resistance. To add your voice to that, write to your senators and representative. Thousands of your fellow Americans will thank you. As will generations to come. As will Smokey.
Remember: Only you can prevent forest Fire Sales.
Tags: Conservation; Politics
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