U.S. government shouldn’t give its assets to profiteers

U.S. government shouldn’t give its assets to profiteers

A former timber industry lobbyist who oversees the U.S. Forest Service in the Bush administration has been secretly negotiating with a former logging company turned real estate developer, with the result being a giveaway of valuable public assets.

Putting Mark Rey in charge of the forest service is akin to putting a former tobacco lobbyist in charge of the U.S. Public Health Service, but the Bush administration has not been averse to such ironic appointments throughout its tenure. Nonetheless, what Rey has been up to of late cannot be tolerated, and there is finally some indication that it won’t be.

At the insistence of U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., the Government Accountability Office is investigating the closed door negotiations between Undersecretary of Agriculture Rey and Seattle-based Plum Creek Timber Co., the nation’s largest owner of private land, regarding easements that would open thousands of acres in Montana to high-end residential development.

Much of the millions of acres that Plum Creek owns it acquired when the government was virtually giving away land in an effort to encourage logging. The government also provided easements across federal land to be used as logging roads.

Timberland is worth $500 or $1,000 an acre. But acreage developed in wilderness areas for residential use can be worth $10,000 an acre — if access to the land is assured.

That’s where the secret negotiations between Rey and Plum Creek come in.

Taking the highway

Easements across government-owned land to acreage that Plum Creek purchased long ago for logging purposes are being redefined. The original intent was to allow temporary roads that would allow access of equipment and trucks for logging purposes. Rey is prepared to redefine the easements to allow permanent roadways to residential developments.

It is quite possible that such a plan would be perfectly in keeping with the changing face of Montana, which has been attracting hundreds of well-heeled retirees and celebrities who build comfortable hideaways. There may be a potential for thousands or tens of thousands of second or third homes tucked into Montana’s mountainsides.

But if that is to be Montana’s fate, Montanans should have something to say about it. And if the U.S. taxpayers are going to provide access to those hideaways across public land, then the U.S. taxpayers should get a piece of the action.

It shouldn’t be up to a few political appointees or bureaucrats to give away easements that will effectively increase the value of some of Plum Creek’s acreage by a factor of 20. If it takes a road across public land to turn Plum Creek’s $500-acre of timber into a $10,000-per-acre retreats, the federal government — that’s all us taxpayers — should be adequately compensated.

The federal government has given away logging rights, mining rights and drilling rights for pennies on the dollar for far too long, It should be tightening up on those giveaways, demanding a fair return on the dollar. The last thing our government should be doing is giving away road easements to facilitate residential development for the rich and famous.