The U.S. Forest Service abandoned plans earlier this week to
sell off more than 400 acres of Los Padres National Forest,
including 104 acres in Santa Barbara County’s New Cuyama Valley.
Considered in early February as a means of funding President Bush’s
Secure Rural Schools Act, the plan was thrown out after federal
officials deemed the oil-producing parcels “too difficult” to sell.
Despite the recall on local lands, the Forest Service is moving
forward with plans to sell more than 70,000 acres of National
Forest land in California and more than 200,000 acres nationwide in
hopes of raising some $800 million for rural schools.
