Wayne National Forest might soon bid farewell to 425 acres of land in Marietta, Athens and Ironton.
The sale is part of a plan announced Feb. 10 by the Bush Administration to sell roughly 300,000 acres of national forests across the country. The proceeds of the sales would benefit rural schools and roads.
Congress will review the proposal in March as part of President Bush's 2007 budget recommendation. If approved, the sale of 425 acres of Wayne National Forest would commence a few months after Congressional authorization, said Phil Sammon, public affairs officer at Wayne National Forest.
Wayne National Forest - which is approximately 240,000 acres - spans across 12 Ohio counties. Visitors can hike, ride horses and camp in the forest; however, the areas for sale are not main recreational sites.
Sammon said the acreage proposed for sale is far removed from the main sections of the forest and is expensive to maintain. Selling those parcels of land could prove to be a mixed blessing.
I don't know that this would necessarily benefit the forest
but there are potential benefits for the community Sammon said.
Not only would selling the land raise money for rural schools and roads, but it also would allow Wayne National Forest management to focus on the main areas of the forest for the public, he said.
Some science professors at Ohio University object to the proposed sale.
Philip Cantino, a professor in the Department of Environmental and Plant Biology at OU, said that regardless of where these parcels of land are located, selling national forest land is the wrong course of action to take.
I'd love to see the Wayne increasing acreage Cantino said. Instead of separate parcels of land, Cantino said he would like to see a connected forest, which would be better for wildlife and plants.
Glenn Matlack, a forest ecologist and OU professor in the Department of Environmental and Plant Biology, said by selling the land instead of continuing to buy land, (the government is) freezing the assembly of the national forest. He said the Bush administration is inventing a rationalization that reflects its priorities by tying the sale to school funding, and he said the impetus behind the proposal is political, not biological.
Brandi Whetstone, the executive director of the Buckeye Forest Council, said no one would benefit from the sales. She said the funding going to rural schools would be temporary and would not solve any long-term problems, and the public would lose the forest. They may think they're helping
but if they had their priorities straight
we wouldn't be in this position of having to sell our natural resources for school funding
Whetstone said.
Matlack said those who wonder if losing parts of the forest is of any concern to them should take a walk in the forest, and then they should go to a suburban area and decide if that is what they want Athens County to become.
According to the USDA Forest Service Web site, citizens may comment on the proposal for 30 days after the proposed sites for selling land are declared in publication. The Forest Service Web site offers multiple methods for commenting.
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Diane Seldon
