Easley lobbies to save forestland in N.C.

Gov. Mike Easley on Tuesday wrote to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, asking it not to sell 10,000 acres of national forest land in North Carolina.

The land, spread over 19 counties and all four national forests in the state, is part of 300,000 acres nationally that the Bush administration has proposed selling. The public has until the end of the month to comment on the proposal.

In his letter to Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey and Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth, Easley wrote of his "strong opposition" to the sale.

"With all due respect," Easley wrote, "this proposal violates all the tenets of good public policy."

He pointed out that the 9,828 acres amounts to 9 percent of all national forests in North Carolina, and the proposal comes just as the state is working on a long-term strategy to preserve a million acres statewide by 2009. The state is 420,000 acres toward that goal, Easley wrote.

"Many of these lands are critical for the environmental and conservation benefits they impart," Easley wrote. And, he added, other land could be used as land swaps to exchange for more valuable conservation acreage.

The $800 million raised nationally through the sales would go to fund the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act. The six-year-old act was created to help rural counties make up for the decline in revenue from timber harvests.

But Easley criticized that idea, too.

He pointed out that other states -- Oregon, for example -- may benefit disproportionately from the sale. Although Oregon and North Carolina have the same number of acres up for sale, he said, Oregon received $162 million vs. North Carolina's $1 million last year in the schools program.

"This proposal damages our natural resources and heritage with no effort to provide commensurate benefit," Easley wrote.

Pundit plays Edwards

Former U.S. Sen. John Edwards should be flattered. The press in Washington still remembers him.

They evoked him in costume Saturday night on stage at the white-tie Gridiron Club dinner. The event, attended by President Bush, top politicos and the haute press, is an annual let-your-hair-down evening where the pundits make fun of the folks they cover.

The Gridiron officially is off the record. But Dome has sources.

So Edwards showed up in character, played by Houston Chronicle columnist Cragg Hines. The skit tried to figure out which 2008 outside-the-beltway Democratic presidential candidate is most "country."

Hines-as-Edwards was joined by former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner and Gov. Tom Vilsack of Iowa (OK, by other journalists playing the governors).

Each sang a stanza about his country-ness to the tune of "Thank God I'm a Country Boy."

As Under the Dome's columnist colleague Barry Saunders would say, Maestro, hit it:

"This Carolina redneck can be plenty tacky

When I need to I can even spit tobacky

Course I got rich suing folks, by cracky.

Thank God I'm a country boy."

The real Edwards missed the performance. A spokeswoman said he was in Florida on Saturday attending a relative's wedding.

Spring break

Speaking of Edwards, he will lead a group of 700 college students to the Gulf Coast Thursday through Saturday to help with the rebuilding efforts during spring break. Last fall, Edwards toured 10 college campuses urging students to work to help eliminate poverty.

Edwards will be in Chicago today to visit a tax counseling project for low-income people and to give a speech to the Harris School of Public Policy Studies.