Posted by Lori Kincaid on March 3, 2006 at 10:41 AM
The USFS has issued a Federal Register Notice and Request for Comments on the proposed sale of USFS lands (National Forest)throughout the United States to fund the Rural Schools Initiative. You can find 'official information' about the proposed sale and the FR notice here. Maps of the lands proposed for sale are available here, but be forewarned the government's map viewer is woefully slow on a dial-up modem and difficult to use.
The USFS requests that comments be addressed to SRS_land_sales@fs.fed.us
The Wilderness Society has more information about the proposed sale here. They've also established a TAKE ACTION pageallowing you to quickly and easily send a message objecting to this sale to your members of Congress.
Being from rural Appalachia, I'm all for the funding of poor, rural schools, but there has to be a better way. I believe the sale of our national assets to fund unrelated activities in these days of severe budget shortfalls would set a very dangerous precedent for the future of our public lands. I hope you'll join with me in sending comments to the USFS and writing your representatives in Congress to object to this sale!
Thanks for posting this, Laurie. All schools, not just rural schools, need adequate funding, but selling the national natural resources is not the way to go about it. Our children and grandchildren will need, and deserve, national forests and all they produce in the way of cleaner air, more and better water resources, recreational opportunities, wildlife, etc.
Besides, I don't trust this (or any other government) to actually spend the money on schools--it's been shown over and over that when states promise to spend money on schools, to get something (such as lotteries) through, the benefit to schools is always less than promised. The Administration says "schools" because that's something it's hard to argue against...not because there's any real commitment to schools.
Discussion
1 repliesThe USFS requests that comments be addressed to SRS_land_sales@fs.fed.us
The Wilderness Society has more information about the proposed sale here. They've also established a TAKE ACTION pageallowing you to quickly and easily send a message objecting to this sale to your members of Congress.
Being from rural Appalachia, I'm all for the funding of poor, rural schools, but there has to be a better way. I believe the sale of our national assets to fund unrelated activities in these days of severe budget shortfalls would set a very dangerous precedent for the future of our public lands. I hope you'll join with me in sending comments to the USFS and writing your representatives in Congress to object to this sale!
Lori
Besides, I don't trust this (or any other government) to actually spend the money on schools--it's been shown over and over that when states promise to spend money on schools, to get something (such as lotteries) through, the benefit to schools is always less than promised. The Administration says "schools" because that's something it's hard to argue against...not because there's any real commitment to schools.
Elizabeth Moon
Texas