Conveyances Under Florida National Forest Land Management Act of 2003

Floor Speech

CONVEYANCES UNDER FLORIDA NATIONAL FOREST LAND MANAGEMENT ACT OF 2003 -- (House of Representatives - December 17, 2007)

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Mr. BOYD of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my friend, the distinguished chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, Mr. Peterson, for granting me time to speak on behalf of this legislation and also thank him and the ranking member, Mr. Goodlatte, and his representative for supporting this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, the Apalachicola National Forest is the largest of Florida's three national forests. It contains 564,000 acres, and its rivers and streams provide a steady freshwater flow to some of the most productive coastal bays and estuaries known for shellfish and other commercial seafood. Portions of the forest are in wet lowlands and they abound with cypress, oak and magnolias. Watching wildlife, hunting and fishing are popular recreation activities in this beautiful national forest. Visitors to the forest also enjoy swimming, picnicking, boating, and camping.

The Apalachicola National Forest is truly a national treasure, and I am very proud that this legislation will help strengthen and sustain one of our Nation's most valuable natural assets.

As the chairman and the ranking member have said, this enables the national forest to sell a piece of property that really lies right on the south side of Tallahassee, Florida, in Leon County. It actually comes up to the beltway, or what we call the Capital Circle and is surrounded on three sides by commercial development. It is detached from the rest of the national forest, and so it is really, as you have heard earlier, an unmanageable piece of land. And with those proceeds, we are going to use the proceeds to go and purchase some privately held holdings within the confines of the 564,000 acres, what we commonly know as ``inholdings,'' and that is the only purpose that those funds can be used for. There are about 2,000 acres of inholdings, privately held lands within the Apalachicola National Forest, and that is what those funds, Mr. Speaker, would be used for.

I want to thank Mr. Joe Baca, the Forestry Subcommittee chairman, and his staff director, Lisa Shelton, for helping guide this legislation through the subcommittee process. And also I want to thank my friend, the majority leader, Mr. Hoyer, for scheduling. I encourage our colleagues to pass this legislation.

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