National forest property in Weber, Cache, Morgan and Utah counties as well as in central and southern Utah, could be sold under the proposal, which still must be approved by Congress.
The Bush administration has proposed selling 306,628 acres of forest in the United States to raise money for rural schools and communities that would have benefited from the timber money.
"These lands are in most cases isolated parcels," said Erin O'Connor, spokeswoman for the Intermountain Region of the U.S. Forest Service based in Ogden. "Because they are isolated parcels, they are difficult to manage as national forest system lands."
O'Connor said the federal lands would be sold at fair market value. The sales method has yet to be determined.
In a release, the Forest Service said that because it is acquiring land through other programs, the proposed sale will result in no net loss of public lands.
Utah properties identified for possible sale are east of Porcupine Reservoir in Weber Canyon, near the Deer Creek Reservoir dam at the top of Provo Canyon, near Causey Reservoir in Weber County, west of Wellsville in Cache County and south of Pineview Reservoir in Morgan County.
The Bush Administration proposal also calls for the disposal of Bureau of Land Management federal lands. Joe Incardini, BLM lands and realty branch chief in Utah, said no overall acreage for Beehive State property has yet been determined. Any land would need to be identified in Resource Management Area plans, some of which are being updated.
"A lot of the proposed changes have not yet jelled into new laws," he said.
Environmental groups such as the Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society oppose the proposed public land sales.
"Our national forest lands are places where Utah families go to hunt, fish and picnic and if these lands pass into private hands, they will no longer be available for those activities," said Lawson LeGate, Sierra Club spokesman. "This marks a disturbing trend of legislative proposals dealing with land use in parts of the West, which call in some cases for the wholesale disposal of tens of thousands of acres of land. And, in most cases when these sales do occur, the revenue does not get plowed back into conservation."
LeGate said the proposals to sell public lands often occur near sprawling communities, encouraging further sprawl.
The U.S. Forest Service's own long-term strategic plan lists loss of open space to development as one of the four major threats to forest health.
"Across the nation, forests and rangelands are being broken up into smaller parcels, leading to the loss of habitat, affecting air and water quality and reducing economic viability of farming, ranching and forest management enterprises," the agency said on its Web site.
The Forest Service said that approximately 8.7 million acres of open space were lost to development between 1997 and 2001.
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