John Schultz's Weblog

Monday February 27, 2006

Plan to sell Forest Service land a good idea Recent articles in the Columbia Daily Tribune and Columbia Missourian have discussed the possible sale of five small parcels of the Mark Twain National Forest in Boone and Callaway counties. The usual suspects have come out against this proposal, saying the sale of a small fraction of Forest Service lands sets a bad precedent. I would argue that this is a good decision. The five tracts are not contiguous with the rest of the forest, and the Forest Service indicates this fact (and the small amount of acreage) makes them hard to manage. At best, these should be state-owned properties, or possibly managed by the University of Missouri since all three tracts in Boone County border University-owned land. However, I feel the best decision is to sell these properties to concerned groups who are interested in keeping the land undeveloped and wild. This will reduce the amount of public land owned by the government, bring in a small amount of revenue from the sale and property taxes, and put the burden on those who wish to manage the land - not the taxpayers. ( Feb 27 2006, 10:29:56 AM CST ) Permalink Comments [2]