Conservation bill not expected to go far

It's touted as a model private-public solution for conservation: allow nonprofit groups to tap tax-exempt revenue bonds to buy working forests and keep them out of developers' hands. For nearly a decade, that proposal has gone nowhere in Congress. For the fifth time since 2003, Sen. Patty Murray has rolled out legislation to authorize conservationists to borrow money via municipal bonds to acquire timberlands and to keep logging a portion of the forest to repay the debt. A companion bill again is pending in the House, too, this time with Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Auburn, as the lead sponsor. The Community Forestry Conservation Act of 2011 has wide backing from conservation groups and timberland owners. They include Federal Way-based Weyerhaeuser and Seattle's Plum Creek, the nation's largest private landowner. Yet the legislation's prospect for passage in this Congress appears just as dim as ever...more

The enviros just can't keep their hands out of the public till. They have all these laudable goals they want to accomplish...with other people's money. Just imagine the loggers wanting municipal bond money to acquire timberlands to keep them out of enviro hands.

And isn't it wonderful that Weyerhaeuser and Plum Creek want the public to subsidize the purchase of their lands. Got something to sell? Just have the buyers raid the public treasury so they can meet your price. Shame on them.