Looking for $$$ for mountain tracts

ATLANTA - Environmentalists are expressing concern that five wilderness areas in northeast Georgia may wind up in the hands of private developers if Congress doesn't restore the funds needed to buy them. They are the Jacks Creek, Holly Creek, Appalachian Trail, Yonah Mountain, and Chattooga River projects.

The U.S. Forest Service has been planning for several years to purchase the tracts, but Congress adjourned a few weeks ago without passing a budget,. Environmentalists fear that with the make up the new Congress - Republicans in control of both houses - the funding could be in jeopardy.

Spokesmen for Georgia Senator Zell Miller, a Democrat, and Republican Congressman Nathan Deal of Gainesville tell the Atlanta Journal-Consitution their bosses will be will be working hard to make sure the money is included in the new appropriations bill.