Land Sale Plan Tilted in Northwest's Favor

[jpak]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/bw-wh/2006/mar/04/030400207.html

More than a quarter of the $800 million the Bush administration plans to raise by selling national forest would benefit rural schools in Oregon and Washington, though just 6 percent of the sales would occur in those forest-rich states.

Only about 10 percent of the proceeds would go toward rural schools in the South and Midwest, the two regions where more than a third of the sales of 300,000-plus acres would occur, according to an analysis by the Southern Environmental Law Center.

Oregon alone would get $162 million, in exchange for 10,581 acres, under the administration's plan for reauthorizing a law set to expire Sept. 30.

Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, who directs U.S. forest policy, said the law was devised to help those rural counties hurt by logging cutbacks on federal lands. Parcels proposed for sale are isolated, difficult or expensive to manage, or no longer meet Forest Service needs, he said.

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[MasonJar]

1. Impeach Bush now; save America's forests. And Mr. Rey, why

should anyone believe you? You work for the lying bunch at the White House, don't you?