<font color="yellow">Let's hope this stays for "public use and recreation"... and is not resold to other organizations that wish to close it down, as so often happens in these types of situations...</font c>


Loggers sell land for public use

By Record Searchlight staff, news services
** SAN FRANCISCO _ A conservation group plans to buy more than 30,000 acres
in the Sierra Nevada from a timber company and make that land available for
public use in the next two to three years.<
** The first phase of the agreement involves the Trust for Public Land buying
6,100 acres along the North Fork of the American River from Sierra Pacific
Industries, an Anderson-based logging company, for about $6 million.<
** Trust officials said Monday they eventually could buy up to 50,000 acres
from Sierra Pacific for preservation.<
** ``We have frequently crossed the Rubicon this year, and in years to come,
we're hoping to buy the Rubicon,'' said Alan Front, senior vice president and
director of federal affairs for the trust, referring to one of the rivers in
the area to be preserved.<
** Sierra Pacific, the largest private landowner in California with 1.5
million acres, decided to make the parcels available to the organization
after an inventory of its land, said Mark Emmerson, the company's chief
financial officer. He said it would be more economically viable to have the
land in the public trust, rather than log it.<
** ``It wasn't optimal for timber production,'' Emmerson said. ``We could
have sold it for other uses, but we think this land is of greater use
visually and recreationally.''<
** Ed Bond, Sierra Pacific's spokesman in Anderson, agreed that the land
would be best used for recreational purposes.
** ``We determined that certain parcels were best suited for public use
because of their beauty and location,'' Bond said. ``We can better utilize
that money'' from the deal ``for more productive lands for timber.''®MDNM¯
** The first 6,100 acres will be managed by the U.S. Forest Service, and
future acquisitions that are part of the agreement could be handed over to
the federal or state governments, or another nonprofit organization for
public use, said David Sutton, director of the trust's Sierra Nevada Program.<

** Money for the first acquisition will come partly from the federal Land and
Water Conservation Fund. The trust expects to raise the rest of the money
from private donors.<
** Some environmental organizations commended the agreement, saying it will
help protect what they call ``critical lands'' in the Sierra Nevada.<
** ``We have been working on protecting the North Fork for 40 years,'' said
Eric Gerstung of the Sierra Club. ``This means a great deal for the public
and for our membership.''<
** Jay Watson, regional director for the Wilderness Society, agreed.<
** ``The eventual public ownership of these lands will help provide
long-lasting ecological integrity to these river ecosystems, as well as
providing highly valuable outdoor recreation to the residents of the Golden
State,'' he said in a statement.
** Sierra Pacific and the Forest Service have been collaborating since 1977
to exchange land owned by the forest products company. The Trust for Public
Land has participated in the effort since 1989.