Recently there has been discussions on these two issues in the forest science field. Some States are requesting that public forest lands managed by the Department of Agriculture, Forest Service and Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management, be transferred to State control. With the reduction in federal income taxes, many States have lost the federal grant moneys that use to help finance education and transportation maintenance and construction. The lose of these federal grant moneys has created some very difficult economic problems for several States and required them to implement some very creative ways to meet their financial obligations. A few States have actually sold some of their infrastructure to foreign countries to create capital. Even inter-state tollways have been sold. One State changed their trailer licensing process from yearly charges to a permanent one owner license at a much higher cost. This process results in an immediate influx of capital however, after about ten years the annual income will shrink to less then the original system. This same scenario holds true when one sells off public infrastructure as well. Transferring National Forest System lands to smaller government entities could easily result in very devastating impacts on our valuable remaining public forested lands. Currently our National Forest System lands are protected from sale by Congressional Law. Is it logical to give up this protection for short term profit? We have already lost over half of the forest acreage that once covered our planet and our world population now exceeds seven billion people. We are now told that out of the 5 most serious environmental issues we face, population expansion is number one and deforestation is number three! I simply can not emphasize strong enough, WHAT WE DO TO OUR FORESTS WE DO TO OURSELVES! Our species can not survive without trees! We must protect the remaining acres of forest cover and develop a more effective way of managing these valuable forests. Management must shift from the resources we can take from the forests to the health and diversity of the individual forest communities, or ecosystems if you prefer.
