Land sale scrutiny

Last week the Bush administration unveiled a plan that would sell off certain Forest Service lands to finance a program that makes payments-in-lieu of taxes to counties like Flathead.

Last year the county received about $1.3 million in payment from the Forest Service. The theory behind the nationwide program is that counties expend considerable amounts of money to support Forest Service land, so they deserve some compensation. Flathead County, for example, spends a lot of time and effort and funds to maintain the North Fork Road.

In years past, the Forest Service made the payments based on timber sale receipts. Then a host of environmental lawsuits and concerns arose, and timber receipts went down.

Congress in 2000 then wrote a law that allowed counties to base payments on a high average of receipts from the 1990s, when timber sales were higher.

But now the Bush plan relies on land sales as a way to make the payments for the next six years.

In the Flathead, that could amount to as many as 3,000 acres of so-called surplus lands.

This raises some red flags for us. For one, once land is sold, it can never be managed for timber, or wildlife, or recreation ever again. We don't deny that there are probably some parcels that are suitable for sale. But 3,000 acres? That sounds a bit much. The Forest Service says that number will likely be whittled down. But even if it's half that, it's still pretty high.

But what worries us more is the land list that was developed wasn't even produced locally. It came from Washington.

When was the last time Washington knew what was best for Montana?

Our point exactly.