The Bush administration recently announced its proposal to sell more than 300,000 acres of national forests and public lands to raise money for the federal treasury.

The land sales could total more than $1 billion and would be the largest sale of forestland in decades.

Forest Service officials say the sales are needed to raise $800 million over the next five years to pay for schools and roads in rural counties hurt by logging cutbacks on federal land.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., called the plan a “terrible idea based on a misguided sense of priorities.” While increasing military funding by 6.9%, the Bush administration cut education spending by 3.8% in this FY2007 budget. And now it wants to sell our natural heritage to pick up the slack?

Selling public land to pay down the deficit would be a shortsighted and irresponsible shift in federal land-management policy. The monetary gains would be temporary, but the land would be gone forever. There are better ways to fund public schooling.

UPDATE: The comment period for this proposal has been extended to May 1, 2006. Sign the petition below to urge your congressional representatives to oppose this reckless effort.

Dear [your members of Congress],

I am outraged to hear about the proposal to sell our public land, including parcels of national forests, to help pay for rural schools and roads.

[your personal comment here]

While I recognize that logging cutbacks on federal land have hurt rural counties, raising money by selling OUR natural heritage is a terrible idea. It would be a shortsighted, ill-advised and irresponsible shift in federal land-management policy. The monetary gains would be temporary, but the land would be gone forever. There are better ways to fund public schooling.

As my representative, please oppose the sell-off of our treasured public lands.

Sincerely,

[your name]
[your state]