Ok so the government has decided that a good way to help pay for rural schools is to sell of tracts of the national forest. Obviously they are doing this because they think it is a brilliant way to pay for something without having to use the “t” word (tax). This includes many forests in many states, but Missouri has the third largest total acreage that is up for sale in the proposed deal. Obviously the tree hugger in me thinks this is a stupid idea and here is why:

1- Costs for a school will never go away. They need a continuous stream of revenue. Selling off an asset provides only a short term solution. When the money from the forest sale runs out in a few years what is the next piece of public property that will be offered to the highest bidder?

2- With the explosion of rural development going on these days, we should be buying more land to save, not selling off the pieces we have.

3- Missouri is getting the bad end of this deal because it has more to loose than all but 2 other states (california and i’m not sure what the other one is). About 22,000 acres have been selected to be sold in southern missouri, which is a little over 34 sq miles total.

4- Although the idiots in Washington and elsewhere might think the national forest land is just sitting and not being productive, some people actually enjoy having a place that is owned by the public and protected from being tore up by individuals, developers, and the like. Just because these politicians don’t use this land doesn’t mean no one else does. Not everyone has the money to buy their own 2,000 acre estate.

5- I am a big fan of the national forest. Remember this recent outing thanks to the Mark Twain Natl Forest?

6- Did I mention the fact that the sale of all this land is a completely near-sighted solution? Once land is sold, its sold. You can’t sell it again every year.

If this irritates you as much as it does me (which it probably does not, but thats ok) you are probably asking yourself “what can i do?”. Well here is the answer – the month of march is public comment period, which again is brilliant becuse almost no one even knows about this plan because it hasn’t been publicized very much. So comment and tell them how stupid this idea is (preferrably in a more tactful way). Here is the contact info:

Comments on the proposed sale of Forest Service land to finance the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000 can be submitted by March 30, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

Comments can be sent by e-mail to: mailto:SRS_Land_Sales @fs.fed.us.

Written comments may be sent to: USDA Forest Service, SRS Comments, Lands 4S, 1400 Independence Ave., SW, Mailstop 1124, Washington, DC, 20250-0003.

By the way, I love how they have titled this proposal “Secure Rural Schools”. What a joke. It is not going to “secure” anything for very long. Am I totally missing somethere here? WHAT are they gonna do in 5 years. Just doing some math – if all 22,000 acres were sold at $2,000 an acre (reasonable for large tracts of rural land), thats about $44million (assuming ALL of the missouri land sale money stays in missouri – which is unlikely. To give you an idea of what impact this will have – the 2005 education for the state of missouri was $4.8 BILLION. So, basically nothing. At least not for more than a couple years.