SC Suffers Public Land Loss!

[DUCKMAN]

The US Forestry Service has announced the sale of 43 parcels of land in SC amounting to 4,656 acres.

Berkeley - 1,096 acres
Chester - 273 acres
Edgefield - 679 acres
McCormick - 591 acres
Oconee - 1,233 acres
Saluda - 71 acres
Union - 591 acres
Plus some very small tracts

Why didn't they transfer this to the state?

[Idlewild]

[Rubberhead*]

Quite simply: The government is selling an asset that belongs to you and me to pay for some entitlement program that the Democrats used to buy votes.

[Tuffy]

This is part of the 2008 Budget Proposal associated with:

PAYMENTS TO STATES–President's FY08 Budget Proposal-National Forest Land Adjustment for Rural Communities Act*
The President's FY 2008 Budget for the Forest Service includes a legislative proposal that would provide a funding source for any future proposals to extend the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000.

The National Forest Land Adjustment for Rural Communities Act would authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to provide a reliable source of funding for a four-year extension of SRS. To help fund this initiative, the Administration recommends selling a limited number of acres of National Forest System lands around the nation. The proposal directs that 50% of land sale receipts to remain within the state they were collected, to be used for the acquisition of land and access for the NFS system, conservation education, and wildlife and fish habitat restoration.

Lands that have been identified for sale are displayed in a table at the following link: Lands Potentially Eligible for Sale by State and National Forest.

Disclaimer: All parcels shown are subject to change without prior notification. Reported acreage for parcels are approximate and are subject to change. The Forest Service does not warrant the current condition of title for parcels listed. Outstanding rights and restrictions may encumber the title to any or all of the subject parcels.

Options for viewing the parcels are listed below.

PDF Maps
To view PDF files containing maps of lands potentially eligible for sale on each National Forest, click on the following link, PDF Maps of USFS Parcels Potentially Eligible for Sale. The maps are listed last near the bottom of the webpage of the previously mentioned link. These maps contain minimal information and are intended to give the user a general parcel location. The PDF maps should be used in conjunction with the interactive Geocommunicator map.

Interactive Map Viewer
Click on the following link at Geocommunicator.gov for a detailed map of all lands identified as potentially eligible under this initiative. Instructions for navigating the Geocommunicator site can be found by clicking on Geocommunicator tool navigation instructions (PDF). The link, Parcel Search Engine (PDF) are instructions on using the search tool.


Web Services
For ArcGIS users, a streaming web service may be set up using the following instructions: Web Services (PDF).

Zipped Shape File
GIS parcel information, in the form of a shape file, can be found at the following ftp site: usfs_parcels_shp.zip. The zip file contains nation-wide coverage of all of the identified parcels.

For information regarding the Payment to States program and the proposed National Forest Land Adjustment for Rural Communities Act, click on the following link: Secure Rural School and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000.

*Note: You will need Adobe Reader (available free of charge from the Adobe website) to open the PDF files linked to this webpage.

[Tuffy]

The best way that I have found to locate these parcels proposed for sale is:

http://www.geocommunicator.gov/NILS-...p.jsp?MAP=USFS

The parcels are highlighted and numbered. The LIST of parcels can be found at:

http://www.fs.fed.us/land/staff/spd.html#Southcarolina1