The headline of the appended article, "Forest sell buildings for cash" is misleading. Read the article and you will see that the USFS has begun to sell off not only buildings, but it is selling the land upon which these building rest. What's more, whereas some of these properties are on small lots within cities and towns, others include lands of significant size and are located within valuable recreational settings.
FS Chief Dale Bosworth is quoted as saying,
"I think it would be a very bad thing if we were talking about selling national forest lands, and I would be completely against that..."
The process of liquidating public holdings has begun, as has the process of transferring management control of recreational assets out of public hands. And while the first few transfers are naturally being chosen with care in an effort to avoid evoking public opposition, I challenge Bosworth to unequivocally state that the USFS currently is not now giving very serious consideration to the possibility of selling off or leasing USFS properties located within the boundaries of our National Forests.
You see, I believe the USFS is already talking about selling national forest lands. I believe Chief Bosworth is not playing straight with the American People.
Scott
PS... learn more about the USFS's ongoing efforts to sell properties/facilities, see www.wildwilderness.org/docs/wcfplan.pdf
To learn more about the USFS's plans to shut down, lease or sell, unwanted recreational facilities, see www.fs.fed.us/r3/measures/Prioritize/RS-FMP.htm
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Forests sell buildings for cash
By WHITNEY ROYSTER
Casper Star-Tribune
JACKSON -- Several national forests in Wyoming are part of a national
trend, as individual U.S. Forest Service offices are selling buildings
to help make up for budget cuts.
Under a Bush administration plan, ranger stations, warehouses,
residences and remote work centers could be sold under the program,
which must be approved by Congress.
Forest Service officials say that nationwide the sales will help them
chip away at a $1.2 billion building maintenance backlog by disposing
of run-down property and generating cash for new projects. They want to
get rid of facilities that are surplus, in bad shape or in the wrong
place. But, they stress, forest land itself is not going on the market.
"I think it would be a very bad thing if we were talking about selling
national forest lands, and I would be completely against that," said
Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth. "From my perspective, these are
sites -- in many places, in towns -- that the public doesn't value
their national forest for."
In Wyoming, the Bighorn National Forest sold two properties under the
so-called "pilot conveyance program," according to Anna Jones-Crabtree,
a forest engineer. The two buildings were in Sheridan -- one a
warehouse building, the other an old forest supervisor's residence.
"We sold the buildings because they were no longer necessary for
administrative use," Jones-Crabtree said in an e-mail. "All of the
funding received from the sale will be used to reduce deferred
maintenance at our Sheridan work center. We have some aging utilities
and roofs which need replacement."
Total sale price for both buildings was just under $300,000, she said.
The Bighorn, too is eyeing selling other properties in Lovell, but congressional approval has not been granted.
On the Shoshone National Forest, Forest Engineer Karin Lancaster said
there is a proposal to sell a house in Meeteetse the forest owns for
staff housing, but it also has not been approved. That dwelling is no
longer used by the forest because there is no longer a district there,
Lancaster said.
She said the proposal was submitted in February.
"We have fairly strict rules," Lancaster said. "We can't sell it
without going through this process. They don't approve every proposal
in this pilot conveyance process. What it gives, it gives us the legal
right to keep the funds from the sale. We can use it for maintenance. I
don't know what we're going to use it for yet."
On the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest and Thunder Basin National
Grassland, forest officials sold two properties under the new program.
The Middle Park Ranger Station in Kremmling, Colo., and storage sheds
were sold in 2004.
Steve Kozlowski, forest spokesman, said two ranger districts were
combined, eliminating the need for the Kremmling buildings. Existing
Forest Service personnel in the area now share a building owned by the
Bureau of Land Management.
Also sold was the Hahn's Peak/Bears Ears Ranger Station in downtown
Steamboat. Kozlowski said this was sold because the building had
"substantial structural repair needs" and didn't have adequate space
for employees.
The two sales brought in about $800,000, which Kozlowski said will be
used for maintenance of existing Forest Service buildings and to
correct safety problems.
Outside the agency, some argue that the Forest Service plan is part of
a troubling effort to use the sale of public lands to finance basic
government operations.
"They all fit into a pattern where we seem to be disposing of public
lands indirectly without telling people what we're doing," said
University of California-Berkeley forest policy professor Sally K.
Fairfax. "Part of what they're doing is legitimate, but the other half
is what scares me."
As part of the pilot program, the Kootenai National Forest in
northwestern Montana earlier this year offered a bunkhouse complex on
78 acres next to a reservoir near the hamlet of Noxon. The parcels went
for $850,000.
Under legislation authorizing similar deals in Arizona, the Coconino
National Forest put on the auction block 21 acres and a historic ranger
compound consisting of some of the oldest buildings in Sedona. Bidding
had reached $8.3 million by last week. Forest managers intend to use
the proceeds to build new offices in locations they say would better
serve the public.
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