Forest Service keeps Christmas tree cash

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By Audrey Hudson

The price of permits to cut down Christmas trees in several Western national forests is nearly doubling in some cases, but the additional revenues will not go to local schools or road projects, the traditional beneficiaries of the timber program.

Instead, the National Forest Service is taking advantage of loopholes in legislation and keeping most of the money, according to a public-lands watchdog group.

By shifting the Christmas tree program from timber products to supervision under the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act (FLREA), the Forest Service no longer will have to share a chunk of the revenue with school districts and county governments.

It boils down to whether extractive uses, such as tree cutting, can be reclassified as recreation, said Kitty Benzar, president of the Western Slope No-Fee Coalition in Durango, Colo.

"It's about greed," Miss Benzar said.

Recreation fees don't have to be shared; other fees do. So everything is being redesignated as recreation, whether it fits, she said.

The coalition is tracking the number of national forests participating in what she calls a "sleight of hand" to bypass congressional intent to keep money to which they are not entitled.

"Basically, it's a skim," Miss Benzar said.

"They need to get a legal opinion supporting their interpretation, especially considering the decades-long practice of classifying Christmas trees as part of the timber program," she said.

"This will especially hit the many counties in the West that have a majority of their land in national forests," she said.