More than 500 acres of national forest in Giles and Montgomery counties could be for sale.

The Bush administration proposes to sell national forest land across the country, including 5,717 acres in Virginia, to temporarily fund a program that funnels money to rural counties. The program has run for five years without relying on land sales, and the proposal is drawing strong reactions.

"It's entirely inappropriate to cannibalize public lands in order to meet budget obligations," said Dave Muhly, spokesman for the Sierra Club.

Michael Mortimer, an assistant forestry professor at Virginia Tech and the Virginia chairman-elect of the Society of American Foresters, thinks environmentalists' dismay is misplaced. He said the proposal is prudent if the national forest is safeguarding its most sensitive lands.

"There's no need to shudder in horror," he said. "This notion that all public land should remain public is ideological and ignores other demands, as well as the fact that not every acre is desirable from a public management perspective."

The U.S. Forest Service regularly identifies land more suitable for trade or sale than public management. But the latest management plan for the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests didn't name any such land in Bland County, Muhly said. The land proposed for sale includes 1,630 acres in Bland County.

Any land marked for sale, according to the forest service, is either already on a list set for sale or trade; difficult or uneconomical to manage; or isolated from other forest service land and in an area where the forest service is unlikely to buy more land.

All of the Montgomery County tracts -- 202 acres on Brush Mountain near the Craig County line and 188 acres in two tracts near Norris Run -- are separated by private land from the main body of federal land. But the tract marked for sale in Giles County is contiguous with other national forest land and about a mile from the Appalachian Trail.

U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, said the sale is unnecessary. He also thinks it's a harbinger of something much bigger.

"This proposal is merely the camel's nose under the tent," Boucher said. "This is just a trial balloon."

If this passes, Boucher predicted, the administration will be back with more proposals for larger sales of national forest land.

"Philosophically, the administration doesn't really value the national forest," Boucher said.

Boucher is sponsoring legislation that would continue the rural funding program without selling land. He would have the money come from the government as it has for five years.

U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, is a sponsor of the legislation that would allow the sale. He did not respond to several requests for comment this week.

Since 1908, the federal government has paid local governments 25 percent of the money generated from timbering national forests. That payment fluctuated, sometimes dramatically, which made it difficult for local governments to plan their budgets. So, in 2000, Congress passed the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act. That gave local governments the option of trading the 25 percent formula for a steadier flow of money based on the average of the three highest timber payments made in their state between 1986 and 1999.

The proposed land sales would keep that program going for five more years. But the payments would gradually shrink and then, according to the forest service, the 25 percent formula will resume.

For New River Valley governments, the change may not mean much. Montgomery County, for example, has 19,454 acres of national forest. Putting 390 of those 19,454 acres into private hands probably won't make much difference, said County Administrator Clay Goodman. And the $29,923 the forest service gave Montgomery County in 2005 is relatively insignificant in the county's $123 million budget.

"It will have an impact," Goodman said. "It will not have a major impact."

The plan is far from final. The proposal's details will be published in the Federal Register late this month, beginning a 30-day public comment period that may generate changes. And the plan won't go into effect if the authorizing legislation doesn't pass.

If it passes, the government will have to find someone to sell the land to. Jane Henderson might be one of those people. Thinking she might find a place to go horseback riding, the Craig County woman went to the forest service this week to see where the local tracts are.

"There were several pieces that were near things you are allowed to ride," she said.

But Henderson isn't getting her hopes up. She expects lots to happen before the process is complete.

"It's kind of premature," she said. "I know that this can change drastically after the 30-day comment period."

Staff writer John Cramer contributed to this report.