THE MON HAS BEEN SPARED, FOR NOW

(08/16/2006)

By Bob Weaver Congress has apparently decided to not pursue a Bush administration plan to sell off nearly 300,000 acres of national forest land, including 4,836 acres of West Virginia's Monongahela National Forest. Among those voicing opposition to the proposed federal land sale were all four living former Forest Service chief administrators, who guided the agency from 1979 to 2001 under four presidents, Democrat and Republican. "There doesn't seem to be any congressional movement to authorize the president's proposal," said Kate Goodrich-Arling, spokeswoman for the Monongahela National Forest. The Bush proposal would have raised $800 million dollars to support schools. A public comment period on the proposed land sale ended May 1. "My understanding was that, at the national level, a considerable majority of those responding were not enthusiastic about the idea of selling national forest land," said Goodrich-Arling. In West Virginia, the response was much the same. An open letter by the former Forest Service chiefs said "selling off public lands to fund other programs, no matter how worthwhile those programs, is a slippery slope" that should be avoided. The Mon has been under attack from other measures proposed by the Bush administration. In West Virginia alone, 837,000 acres of the Mon are at risk, including 181,000 acres of Inventoried Roadless Areas. A Bush administration proposal would allow logging, road building and other extracting in what is considered to be valuable unprotected back country of one of the wildest forests in the East.

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