Deal reached on pay to timber counties

GRANTS PASS, Ore. – The Bush administration has agreed to hold off selling some national forest lands and will support one more year of payments to rural counties hurt by cutbacks in federal logging, lawmakers said Monday.

Western lawmakers have been seeking up to $401 million to maintain payments next year to 700 rural counties in 41 states, primarily in the West, which lost revenues from the sale of federal timber when logging was cut back to protect the northern spotted owl, salmon and other fish and wildlife.

The administration had proposed selling 300,000 acres of national forest lands around the country to raise $800 million toward continuing the payments over five years, but it had run into tough bipartisan opposition.

Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, who oversees the U.S. Forest Service, agreed in a letter to support a one-year extension of the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act, which has pumped $2 billion into counties the past six years and is set to expire at the end of September.

Rey also acknowledged that time is running out for Congress to act on the administration’s proposal to sell the isolated parcels of national forests.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said the deal came after he agreed to stop blocking five Bush administration appointments to the departments of Agriculture and Interior.

“This is a year’s worth of good news for hard-hit rural communities and all Americans who know it makes no sense to sell off your natural treasures,” Wyden said.

While Wyden said he wanted a long-term solution that maintains help for rural counties that are unlikely to see a resumption of extensive logging on national forests, Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., said he considered the payments a transition until national forests produce more timber.

“I wish our forest industries were healthy enough that we never needed a county payment program,” Smith said in a statement. “But the fact is that we do need one, and while I’d prefer a long-term solution, we have to make sure our communities can get by in the here and now.”