Hey now tribers, I attended this meeting in Ned last night, thought you would appreciate the update here....


Community Q&A Session with
Doug Young, senior policy advisor to Congressman Mark Udall;
Erin Minks, community liaison for Senator Ken Salazar, and
Christine Walsh, head of the U.S. Forest Service Boulder Ranger District.

The Bush Administration plans to raise money for the treasury by selling off
U.S. Forest Service lands. The proposal affects:
* 304,370 acres nationally
* 21,500 acres in Colorado
* up to 3,120 acres in Boulder County
including Arapahoe Ranch, Boulder Canyon, Caribou Ranch, Eldora town site,
Magnolia Road, Ridge Road, and Sugarloaf Road

>Ok, so I went to this meeting last night, and thought I would share some of what we learned...

First, let me say that there seemed to be very few clear answers to what, when and how this is happening. The bush administration has requested in it's budget $800,000,000 to be generated from the sale of forest service lands to 'fund rural schools'. He is asking for the house and senate to extend a law from 2000 (Rural School Act) that is set to expire this year that allows the feds to tax logging companies to generate revenue for schools in rural counties (apparently used more in the NW) and they are now hoping to use this rule to justify the sale of the proposed lands. This would first have to go to committee, where it could die if the chairman of the committee decides not to include it. If it is included in the proposed budget, it will then require approval in the house and the senate. However, it is also possible that this could be added on to an appropriations bill at the very end, forcing senators to vote for it because it is attatched to more popular or necessary budget items. The vote is expected to happen sometime in September or October.
According to Christine Walsh of the US FS Boulder Ranger Station, there are 304,000 acres nationwide that have been identified for 'disposal' (her word, not mine). In Boulder county, there are 2300 acres out of 137,000 that have been marked for 'disposal'. If this passes and is allowed to proceed, first right of refusal would go to the state, then local governments and then landtrusts, with "the most controversial pieces offered last". The sales would start with the land with the highest value and least controversy going first, and the sales would 'stop' once the $800,000,000 goal was reached. Of course this got quite a reaction as we all know that the most valuable land would be the most controversial as well (Dream Canyon is a good example). The areas that have been mapped so far were chosen by the administration within one week and the Forest Service had one day to approve or appeal. The maps are NOT clear as to where all of this land is, or what it is worth. Surveys and apparaisals would be required, and would impact the actual profit form the sale of the land.
The first right of refusal issue is a tricky one too...any county or state wanting to protect it's land would have to re-purchase the land with it's own funds, taking money away from the county/state that it could use for it's schools, in order to fund it's schools. Logical right? There were no clear answers here either. Also in question is the process of selling this land to the public...who, when, or how, nobody seemed to know.
Both representatives for Ken Salazar and Mark Udall assured us that they were opposed to this sale, although the representative for Salazar seemed to really skirt the issues and offered no answers, only more questions. She said that we were on a "holding pattern" waiting to see what happens in committee. The reaction of the packed house was unanimous, asking our representatives to be pro-active on this issue, and keeping us informed on it's progress. The rep for Mark Udall was a little more encouraging, although his main point was that although this is open for public comment, there are no formal channels established to forward the comment on to the administration. However, public comment is still being accepted, both by the Forest Service and our representatives. At this point it seems like the best place to send comments would be to your senators and congressmen/women, as comments to the forest service would really go nowhere.
The deadline for public comment is May 1st.
Some folks in the Ned/Boulder area have set up a website with the proposed maps and links to voice your opposition....

saveourpublicland.org/index.htm

Again, there was a lot of "I don't know" or "we're not sure" going on last night, so I apologize if you were expecting more answers, I was too. Our best hope is that this dies in committee and doesn't get tacked on to an apprpriations bill at the very end. If it does make it on the budget, it seems that our representatives are our only hope to stop it, so please make your concerns known to them.
I think i've covered most of what I got out of last night, but please let me know if you have any questions.


Jeff Grantham
Homestead Real Estate LLC.
303-859-0079 cell
303-447-3800 voicemail
303-484-4772 fax
itspjef@hotmail.com