FRANKLIN – If the U.S. Forest Service begins selling off public lands, the agency won’t have any trouble finding buyers for land in Western North Carolina.

“I know there would be massive interest in larger tracts due to the fact there aren’t any large tracts of land left in Macon County,” said Robin Parker, owner of Cat Creek Realty in Franklin.

The Bush administration has proposed selling 300,000 acres of public land nationwide, including some 6,615 acres in the Pisgah and Nantahala national forests in Western North Carolina. Some land in the Uwharrie and Croatan national forests in North Carolina would also be put up for sale. The money generated would be distributed to counties for schools.

“We’re already getting a lot of calls from people interested in buying, and we just want to let people know, at this point, this is just a legislative proposal,” said Terry Seyden, spokesman for the National Forests in North Carolina.

And the proposal already faces stiff opposition from some residents and environmental groups.

“It just shocked me. I can’t believe they would go this far, to sell our national forests,” said Joan Mathis of Arden. “I just think that’s something that has been preserved down through the years. It’s something that we treasure.”

U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor, a Brevard Republican, declined to comment on the proposal or whether he will support it. Taylor is chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior and Environment, which funds national forests.

“I don’t want to make a comment until I see their report to Congress. We will study it and make our decision,” he said.

Land tracts, large and small

Locally, conservation groups want to know exactly which parcels could be sold. The Pisgah and Nantahala national forests cover more than a million acres in Western North Carolina. And the boundaries are far from smooth. Both forests include a number of isolated tracts not contiguous to the larger tracts.

“Some of the parcels (identified for possible sale) are pretty significant size, several hundred acres,” said Hugh Irwin, conservation planner with the Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition. “That’s a real concern because they’re not just small, five or 10 acres separated from the rest of the national forest.”

The Forest Service has a tentative list of tracts detailing which land could be sold. As of now, more than 100 tracts of land in Western North Carolina, ranging in size from about one-third of an acre to a more than 570-acre tract in Madison County, could be sold as part of the proposal.

The land identified for possible sale is isolated from other Forest Service tracts and difficult to manage, according to Seyden. But not all of it is isolated from other public land.

Forest Service maps show several tracts adjacent to the Needmore land in Swain County could be sold. The state owns 4,400 acres in the area and manages the land as game lands.

The Needmore tracts were bought in 2004 after a major public-private campaign to preserve the property. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service put up $2 million toward the purchase.

“It’s hard for me to imagine any public support that would be coming for this,” said Paul Carlson, executive director of The Land Trust for the Little Tennessee.

Seyden said the Forest Service’s regional and Washington offices developed the list of tracts for possible sale.

Officials looked at whether the land was isolated, whether future land acquisition in the area was unlikely and whether the land had been previously identified for exchange or disposal.

“This registry was established as a beginning point, a starting point,” said Dan Jiron, national press officer for USDA Forest Service in Washington. “We’ll be going through an ongoing review. This wasn’t intended to be a final list for action.”

The largest tract identified for possible sale in Western North Carolina is located south of Hot Springs just west of N.C. 209. The jagged, U-shaped parcel is difficult to access and manage, according to Paul Bradley, district ranger for the Appalachian Ranger District.

“I’m sure the adjoining landowners, if they hunt, probably hunt on it. But if you lived in Hot Springs and wanted to go for a hike, this wouldn’t be a piece of land you would go to,” Bradley said.

Other large tracts are located in McDowell, Mitchell, Cherokee, Macon and Swain counties. The only tract in Buncombe County identified for possible sale is 22 acres off of N.C. 151.

More than 50 tracts totaling more than 2,700 acres in Macon County could be sold under this proposal. A number of those are in the Corbin Knob and Cowee Valley areas.

Congress would have to approve the sale of land. The public will get the chance to comment on the proposal at the end of this month, when the Forest Service opens a 30-day comment period.

The Forest Service will announce later this month how to send in comments.

“We are running out of forest,” said Danny Bernstein of Asheville. “I’m extremely concerned both with the development of public land, and just plain old selling off. Where’s it going to end? Once it’s in private hands, that’s it. There is no going back.”

Larry Jelley of Franklin said care should be taken to preserve the larger tracts and those with significant natural or historic value.

“If it is done, it should be very, very, very selective,” Jelley said.

Where the money would go

Under the Bush plan, the Forest Service would use the money generated to fund payments to counties required under the secure rural schools funding law. North Carolina counties received a total of about $1 million from the program in 2005.

In 2004, Macon County received about $116,000. Buncombe County got $21,700.

Before the 2000 law, counties received 25 percent of the money generated by timber sales and other uses on Forest Service land. However, the money distributed dropped with a decrease in logging. The secure schools law was designed to stabilize the funding. The law is set to expire this year.

Unless it is reauthorized, counties would go back to receiving money based on the 25 percent formula. That would amount to less than half of what they are getting now, according to Seyden.

The Bush proposal would reauthorize the law for five years and pay for the program with the sale of Forest Service land. But the payments would gradually be phased out.

In Graham County, the county received more than $89,000 in 2004, according to Rick Davis, superintendent of Graham County Schools. That equals about 17 percent of the county’s funding for the schools, he said.

Davis doesn’t have an opinion on where the money should come from, but says, “If it’s not funded, then how is it (the money) replaced?”

“It would certainly be hard to do without that $90,000 that we expect each year,” he said.

The school system uses the money for general expenses like fuel and supplies.

The Macon County school system also uses the money it receives for general classroom use such as supplies.

Macon Schools Superintendent Rodney Shotwell isn’t sure this is the best way to fund the program.

“I appreciate the intent that they are trying to help schools out with it, but once the land’s sold, the land is sold, and you can’t take timber sales off federal land that’s sold,” Shotwell said.

Others also question the wisdom of selling land to fund the program.

“It would be like liquidating your land holdings if you are a private owner, getting rid of your lands just to pay your bills,” Irwin said.

Gannett News Service reporter Ellyn Ferguson contributed to this report.

On the Net:

http://www.fs.fed.us/land/staff/rural_schools.shtml — Secure Rural Schools Forest Service Initiative

http://www.cs.unca.edu/nfsnc/ — National Forests in North Carolina

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