A change in the Bush administration's proposal to sell more than 300,000 acres of national forests would give local and state governments first crack at buying the land.

Mark Rey, U.S. Department of Agriculture undersecretary for natural resources and environment, said Tuesday that if Congress approves the proposal, local governments, states and land trusts acting on the governments' behalf could buy the land at market value.

But that doesn't impress conservationists.

"We've been working hard for years to get land added to the national forest, not to sell land out of it," said Roger Holnback, executive director of the Western Virginia Land Trust.

The Bush administration proposes to sell the forest land to temporarily fund a program that funnels money to rural counties. In Virginia, 5,717 acres -- or three-tenths of 1 percent -- of the 1.8 million acres in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests could be sold.

Beth Obenshain, executive director of the New River Valley Land Trust, called the proposal "sort of a shell game."

"What they're doing is just shifting the cost to someone who is less able to afford it," she said.

Rey said states can afford the cost more than the federal government can. And counties that depend on this federal program aren't necessarily so strapped they can't afford to buy the property, he said.

"I don't think that one necessarily flows from the other," he said.

After local and state governments have their chance, the forest service would auction off the rest, Rey said. The most valuable and least controversial tracts would be auctioned first. As little as 175,000 acres could raise the $800 million needed. When that much is in hand, the auctions would stop, Rey said.

U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, says the auctions should never begin. The administration's proposal, he said, cuts the program's funding and makes up the difference by selling public land.

At town meetings in Montgomery, Giles and Bland counties last weekend, Boucher said he found people strongly against the proposal.

"The supporters have been far quieter than the people who have some concerns with it," said Rey, who also said no one has offered an alternative in the month the plan has been discussed.

Boucher is sponsoring legislation that would fund the program through general appropriations, as it has been since 2000.

Through a staff member, U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, said he has questions about the proposal, but it hasn't come to the House of Representatives yet, so he hasn't made up his mind.

David Muhly, a forestry specialist for the Sierra Club, had no reservations about commenting.

"It's a Pontius Pilate kind of thing," he said of the latest twist in the proposal. "Let's wash our hands of it."

Rey seemed perplexed by the controversy.

"Conveying land in and out of federal ownership is not a new, novel, or even uncommon thing," he said.

A Federal Register entry posted Tuesday says the tracts marked for sale "generally meet criteria traditionally used by the forest service to identify lands suitable for sale or exchange. Many of these parcels are isolated from other contiguous national forest system lands, and because of their location, size, or configuration" are inefficient to manage.

"If they don't meet those criteria then they're not on this list unless they're on this list in error," Rey said.

Some errors have already been corrected. About 5,000 acres in California have come off the list, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Virginia's list remains unchanged, though Muhly said forest management plans listed no tradable land in Bland County and the list includes more than 1,600 Bland County acres.

Elmer Hodge, Roanoke County administrator, said county staff is gathering information to take to the board of supervisors. Of the 5,717 acres of forest land in Virginia that have been earmarked for sale under the proposal, 121 acres are in Roanoke County. The county would consider buying the forest land in the county, but would prefer that it stay in federal hands, Hodge said.

Staff writer John Cramer contributed to this report.