Forest Service land proposed to be sold
By Dwight Otwell Editor

U.S. Forest Service land in Cherokee and Graham counties could be sold off under a proposal by President George Bush.

A total of about 300,000 acres of land nationwide could be affected, including over 6,500 acres in the Pisgah and Nantahala national forests.

The preliminary proposal targets 147 acres in two tracts in Cherokee County and one 10-acre tract in Graham County. A possible 2,700 acres has been targeted in Macon County and 790 acres in Swain County.

The Cherokee County land propsed for sale in the early stages of the proposal is in northern Cherokee County near the Graham County line near Marble. The Graham County land under consideration is in the northeast portion of the county, near the Swain County line.

President Bush asked the U.S. Forest Service to identify land that is either unmanageable or outside park service boundaries, said Debra Potter, press secretary for U.S. Congressman Charles Taylor.

Aplan has not yet been presented to Congress. Therefore, Taylor will take no stand on the issue until he sees the plan, Potter said. However, Taylor, who is chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior and Environment, which fundS national forests, is concerned about the issue and takes it very seriously, Potter said.

Funds from the sale of forest service land would go to county school systems under the secure rural schools funding law. This law was passed after timber sales on U.S. Forest Service land decreased. Previously, counties got 25 percent of the money from timber sales on U.S. Forest Service land.

The secure schools law brings in about twice the amount of money than was brought in under the 25 percent formula. However, the secure schools law is set to expire this year.

Bush’s proposal would extend the law for five years, utilizing funds from the sale of Forest Service land.

Cherokee County got about 75,000 a year in the past through timber sales. This year, about $90,000 is budgeted through that measure, according to Cherokee County Schools Director of Finance/Facilities Terelle Beaver.

“It is a vital source of funding in that it can be spent in any way the school (desires),” she said. “It is flexible funds.”

The Forest Service funds represent only about 2 percent of the school system’s budget.

Graham County receives about $90,000 or 17 percent of the school system’s budget from the funds.

It is thought that timber interests and real estate companies would favor the plan as a way to make money and that environmental groups and many individual citizens would oppose it.

Jean Twiggs, an associate broker with ReMax Realty, doesn’t agree with selling off Forest Service land. The former president of the Mountain Lakes Board of Realtors said she hopes the Forest Service keeps “all of its land”.

“I have lived here all my life,” she said. “We have a beautiful, unspoiled area. If Forest Service land is sold off, there goes much of the beauty of the mountains.”

Some local residents have voiced the opinion that if the government sells off some Forest Service land now to generate money, nothing will prevent them from selling off more and more land in the future.

A 30-day public comment period on the proposal would begin in March, officials indicated.