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'I,.,:; Lands 4S, 1400 Independence Ave., SW, Mailstop 1124, Washington, DC, 20250-0003. Send faxed comments to (202) 205- I 604. . The President's fiscal year 2007 budget includes a legislative proposal to reauthorize SRS for an additional five years and to allow the Forest Service to sell approximately 200,000 to 300,000 acres. The money received from the sales (up to $800 million) would provide funding to extend the SRS, which expires on Sept. 30, 2006. To date, states have received a total of approximately $1.9 billion ($2.5 billion including Bureau of Land Management payments) through the SRS legislation. Colorado's Senators Disagree with Land Sale Proposal: On Feb 28 Sens. Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar opposed the Bush administration plan to sell off federal forest lands to help rural towns. The senators were among opponents in both parties questioning the plan. Salazar said Colorado is slated to sell of7.2 percent of the federal lands, but will receive only 1.67 percent of the annual funding. He noted that while he was not opposed to the principle of selling federal land, he was troubled by the idea of doing it to fill a budgetary need. Sen. Allard stated that he had a number of questions and concerns about the . proposal, which he believes faces an uphill battle in Congress Domenlcl Says Forest Service Budget F1exlbUlty Necessary as Southwest Faces Major Drought: With much of New Mexico having gone 100 days without measurable precipitation and severe drought conditions forecast, on Feb IS U.S. Senator Pete Domenici said the U.S. Forest Service must be ready to direct resources to what could very well be one of the worst wildfire seasons ever. Domenici and Senator Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) have written USDA Undersecretary Mark Rey, who oversees the Forest Service, asking the federal agency to make resources available to combat wildfire dangers in New Mexico and Arizona this year---despite recommendations in the FY2006 and FY2oo7 budgets to fund the implementation of the Pacific Northwest Forest Plan. The Senators believe the funding and resource focus . shouJt\"be on areas where severe droughts are predicted, like the Southwest. , Kyl and Domenici told Rey that it is crucial that New Mexico and Arizona have resources now to perform forest thinning projects that will help prevent fires, as well as assets to more quickly battle wildfires early. The President's FY2007 budget request seeks $912 million for the Healthy Forest Initiative carried out by the Forest Service and Interior Department. This is a $5.0 million increase over the FY2006 enacted level, and $220 million increase over FY2004 funding. The budget, however, also recommends a nearly $100 million increase to implement the Clinton administration's Pacific Northwest Forest Plan. The "Drought Watch on the Rio Grande," issued by the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station on predicted continued below-nonnal precipitation through April for the Southwest, including the Rio Grande Basin and Southern Arizona. Lawsuit FlIed Alleging Vlolatiou of Grand Canyon Protection Act: On Feb 15, the Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, Glen Canyon Intitute, Living Rivers, and the Arizona Wildlife Federation filed a lawsuit against the Bureau of Reclamation and Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton alleging that the defendants are violating the Grand Canyon Protection Act by operating Glen Canyon Dam in a way that fails to "protect, mitigate adverse impacts to, and improve the values for which Grand Canyon National Park and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area were established." The defendants are also charged of being in violation of the Endangered Species Act by having failed to reinitiate consultation with the US Fish and Wildlife Service in the face of new information regarding the effects of the dam upon the humpback chub, razorback sucker, Colorado pikeminnow and bonytail chub, and are in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to prepare a supplemental environmental . 8