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Bush's Budget Puts Your Public Lands Up For Grabs
 Here we go again; the administration’s budget includes a number of proposals that would cause great harm to our natural resources, wildlife, and public health. One of the worst would put nearly 800,000 acres of our nation’s public lands up for sale, allowing them to fall into the hands of logging companies, mining interests, and other developers.
Sacrificing public resources held in trust for future generations is not how our country should finance its spending. Once sold, these natural treasures are lost forever.
Once again we must show the administration that our public lands are for the public good. Please tell your members of Congress not to include this disastrous and shortsighted proposal in next year’s final budget.
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Please take a few minutes to personalize your letter -- identical comments have little weight with Congress!
| Sample Letter for Campaign |
Subject: Selling off public lands doesn't belong in the budget
Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,
I am writing because I am extremely concerned about President Bush's proposed budget for FY 2007, which contains a disastrous scheme that would sacrifice treasured areas of our nation's public lands. If this proposal goes forward, nearly 800,000 acres of our public Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands could be sold off and lost forever.
Just two months ago, the public rose up in outrage against a similar proposal in the FY 2006 budget, which would have sold off huge areas of our public lands to mining interests. Sacrificing public resources held in trust for future generations was a bad idea then, and it's a bad idea now.
Please do everything in your power to ensure that next year's budget does not include this shortsighted and misguided land-sale proposal. Thank you for your support and help in this urgent matter.
Sincerely,
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Campaign Launched:
February 23, 2006
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| Multnomah Falls in the at-risk Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, Oregon |
It is amazing that the administration is once again trying to sell off our nation’s public lands, when just two months ago the public joined together to stop a similar proposal by Representative Richard Pombo. Because of the strong opposition to Rep. Pombo’s measure, that proposal was stripped from last year’s budget bill. This was a huge success for every American who values keeping our public resources public: thank you to everyone who took action on that issue! (Learn more about last year's budget victories here).
But now we are faced with a similar massive land sale proposal in the president’s budget for next year, issued a few weeks ago. Once sold, we can never get these natural treasures back, and we lose the ability to enjoy these places in the way they were meant to be enjoyed: by the public.
Estimates put the figure of lands up for sale close to 800,000 acres, including over 300,000 acres of national forest land and 500,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management lands in the West. California would be hit the hardest, with 85,000 acres up for sale in that state alone. Places like the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area in Oregon and Washington would be the first to go, because the Forest Service has already targeted 700 acres within the Scenic Area up for the chopping block.
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| The Blackwater River area in Conecuh National Forest, Alabama, is at-risk |
Other at-risk areas include a remote and rugged river gorge covered with old-growth forest in Washington, parts of a popular recreation area in Montana, and lakeside areas of national forest land in Alabama. While the Forest Service has already identified specific places that would likely be sold, the BLM has been given a sales quota and will be identifying sale tracts as it completes its land use plans.
You may be wondering why the administration is proposing such an absurd idea. They claim they are doing so to fund an anticipated reauthorization of the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000, which provided a guaranteed level of funding for rural counties for schools and roads. However, the administration has proposed to both phase out its funding over five years, and pay for what they do spend through the sale of public lands. The administration should make these payments out of the general treasury – exactly as they did for the past five years – not make children's education funding contingent on selling off their national forests and other public lands.
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| Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, Oregon |
What’s next – and how you can help
The President’s budget for next year is essentially the administration’s wish list of projects and spending levels for 2007. Now, both chambers of Congress are beginning to draft their budget bills, which will be based on the President’s request.
We need you to tell Congress not to adopt this shortsighted and disastrous proposal as part of next year’s official budget. With your help, last year’s land sale scheme was stripped from the budget: now let’s do it again!
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