Yeah. This will surely balance the budget won't it? (You may need to be a subscriber to read the whole article0
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — President Bush’s budget proposal calls for raising more than $1 billion over five years by selling off public lands deemed to have little scenic, recreational or mineral value, drawing criticism from environmental groups.
U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management officials say the sale of parcels, including isolated tracts that can be hard to manage, will allow them to operate more efficiently and generate new revenue for operations.
Most of the proceeds would go to the federal treasury.
“When Western residents wake up to the fact that the Bush administration has a ... scheme to divest the public of its lands, I don’t think people are going to like that very much,” Dave Alberswerth, a public lands expert with The Wilderness Society, told The Salt Lake Tribune.
Other activist groups objected Wednesday to a lease auction planned later this month of public lands in Utah for oil and gas development. The sale will offer drilling leases to parcels off the Green River in Labyrinth Canyon, a popular stop for river runners, and in the San Rafael Desert, a remote area of narrow slot canyons, shifting sand dunes, sculpted rock and miles of roadless expanse.
http://www.djc.com/news/re/11175780.html 
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