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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Lines are being drawn in the fight over plans to sell thousands of acres of public lands in Utah managed by the U-S Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management.
About five-thousand, 400 acres of Forest Service land in Utah would be sold. The effort is part of a Bush administration proposal to sell 300 thousand acres nationwide.
The sales would raise about 800 (M)million dollars for rural counties and schools near Forest Service lands. Utah received two (M)million dollars from the fund in 2005.
Federal officials say the sales include relatively small, isolated tracts that are too costly to manage.
But opponents say the sales could hurt important wildlife habitat and cut off access to other public lands.
The plan must still go before Congress.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
