The Bush administration proposes selling nearly 200,000 acres of national forestland, including 10,581 acres in Oregon, to fund counties and schools undercut by lost timber revenues.

The proposal, which could auction off up to 1,370 acres in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, is an effort to raise up to $800 million nationwide to extend the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act funding for five more years.

The act expires at the end of the current fiscal year on Sept. 30.

In a media teleconference call Friday morning, Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey said the land to be sold includes isolated parcels that no longer meet U.S. Forest Service needs and are expensive to manage.

Although some 309,000 acres have been tagged as eligible to sell, Rey said he expects less than 200,000 acres would have to be sold to raise the $800 million.

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"This is a reasonable proposal to take a small fraction of a percentage of national land which is the least necessary and use it for those in need and achieve an important overarching public purpose," Rey said, although acknowledging it is a "sensitive" issue.

To the latter, Steve Pedery, wildlands advocate for the Oregon Natural Resources Coalition, would agree.

"The Bush administration is turning its back on the legacy of Teddy Roosevelt," he said. "These lands are a part of America’s natural heritage, and they should be preserved as a legacy for our children and grandchildren."

The administration’s ultimate goal is to privatize federal forestlands, added Bend resident Scott Silver, executive director of Wild Wilderness and a Democratic candidate for the 2nd Congressional District.

"Once they sell off what they are calling isolated bits and pieces, they will just dig deeper to sell off more," Silver said. "This administration is draining the Treasury, putting us into hock, so it can say with a straight face that we have no money and there is no other solution but to privatize."

But Rey, who directs U.S. forest policy, observed that the agency purchases an average 100,000 acres each year. The ongoing acquisition program would quickly negate the potential land sales, he said.

"In the broad scheme of things, we will probably net out these conveyances in less than two years," he said.

In addition to the Rogue-Siskiyou, other local forests affected would be the Fremont-Winema with 1,497 acres offered and the Umpqua with 40 acres proposed for sale.

The administration calls for selling 85,465 acres of national forestland in California and 7,516 acres in Washington.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management also plans to sell federal lands to raise an estimated $250 million over five years.

However, no BLM property is included in this proposal, according to a spokeswoman for the BLM’s Medford District.

The first screening to identify potential national forestland to sell was very broad, said Lorette Ray, spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service’s regional office in Portland.

"The guidelines were that they needed to be under 640 acres and on the outer edge of the forest boundary," she said.

The public will have 30 days to comment on the proposal after it is posted in the Federal Register near the end of the month.

Following the comment period, the list will be revised to reflect public sentiment, she said.

If the proposal is approved by Congress, a base price will be established for each parcel that will then be offered in a competitive auction, Rey said.

"Our objective ... will be to give everyone involved the ability to look at each and every tract," Rey said, adding that the process will be open and above-board.

In the region

Those parcels would include six tracts totaling 280 acres in the Butte Falls-Prospect ranger districts, three parcels adding up to 260 acres in the Applegate-Ashland ranger districts, five parcels totaling 470 acres in the Gold Beach-Chetco ranger districts and three tracts representing 360 acres in the Powers district.

For further information, see www.fs.fed.us/land/staff/rural_schools.shtml on the Web