Reporting for New Orleans-based Verite News, writes that Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy has abandoned his plan to transfer 140,000 acres of Kisatchie National Forest to Grant Parish after his bill “sparked outrage from conservationists and parish leaders.”
In the wake of public backlash, Cassidy removed any mention of Kisatchie National Forest from his revised bill, which now “focuses solely on expanding tax credits in local jurisdictions where the federal government owns a large share of land.” The Forest Service owns about a third of Grant Parish, which consists of about 22,000 residents in central Louisiana.
Verite News reports that the Grant Parish Police Jury “voted unanimously against the proposal,” saying, “the parish doesn’t have the resources to manage that much land,” including several campgrounds, habitat restoration areas and hundreds of miles of trails. “Many locals, including the police jury, didn’t feel involved in the process. Parish police jury members said Cassidy’s office began drafting the proposed transfer without consulting them.”
