Published: February 19, 2007 09:08 am         

Feds want to sell part of Uwharrie National Forest

Sunday, Feb. 18, 2007 — Once again portions of the Uwharrie National Forest may be up for sale.

A proposal by President Bush’s administration to fund the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determina-tion Act has come up. Last year more than 2,000 acres of the forest were marked for possible sale in a budget request from the president’s administration.

This time the proposal could affect almost 1,000 acres of land.

Concerned landowners Ron and Nancy Bryant in southern Stanly County said the idea was outrageous.

“We should absolutely not to do it,” he said.

“It (the land sale) is not necessary,” she said. “It’s another issue that the Bush administration has boggled from top to bottom. This administration has no idea how to handle our environment.”

Feb. 7 the Bush administration proposed the sale of National Forest Service lands to help fund the rural schools act.

All four of the national forests in North Carolina, Croatan, Nantahala, Pisgah and Uwharrie, are affected

U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes, R-Concord, wrote to President Bush to express his opposition of the sale of the Uwharrie parcels.

“I am writing you to express my opposition to the fiscal year 2008 budget proposal for the forest service - Secure Rural Schools and Commu-nity Self-Determination Act Extension,” he said.

“This initiative could threaten the Uwharrie National Forest, and I urge you to develop a different proposal to assist funding the Secure Rural Schools and Commu-nity Self-Determination Act.”

The 2008 budget proposal would authorize the sale of certain national forest lands to provide funding for an extension of the Secure Rural Schools Act. The proposal has more than 270,000 national forest acres across the country. That figure includes 5,685 acres from North Carolina’s four national forests.

Hayes said the Uwharrie National Forest is one of the region’s largest attractions, and is a vital economic engine.

“The towns and communities located in this area depend on tourism from those visiting these pristine forest lands,” he said.

“This initiative could threaten that critical source of economic revenue for my constituents. Therefore, I urge you to develop a different proposal to assist funding the act.”

Under the new proposal, half of the land sale receipts are to be used to make payments to states and counties and the other half for National Forest purposes, including the acquisition of land, conservation education, improved access to public lands, wildlife and fish habitat improvement and restoration. In addition the receipts for conservation and acquisition activities would remain within the state that the land sale receipts were collected.

The governor of the state where receipts are collected may submit proposals for the use of the receipts to the secretary and the secretary will submit it to a National Advisory Committee. The National Advisory Commit-tee will make recommendations to the secretary regarding the proposals. Then the secretary will determine the final list of projects and acquisitions

The Uwharrie National Forest was first purchased by the federal government in 1931 during the Great Depression. The land was known as the Uwharrie Reservation.

Residents in the area wanted a park for the area like the Great Smokey Mountain National Park in the western part of the state

In 1961, President Kennedy proclaimed the reservation the Uwharrie National Forest. It is one of the most recently formed national forests. With only 50,189 acres, it is the smallest national forest in North Carolina.

The Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Deter-mination Act was enacted to provide a transition of assistance to the rural counties affected by declines in revenue from timber harvests on federal lands.

Rural counties that have national forest land are the recipients of the funds to provide for schools and roads to offset the loss of potential tax revenues of national forest land.

Public comments on the sale can be mailed to:

USDA Forest Service

SRS Comments, Lands 4S

1400 Independence Ave., SW, Mailstop 1124

Washington, DC, 20250-0003

Fax: (202) 205-1604



E-mail Matt Irvin at snaponline26@yahoo.com.