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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 1, 1992                   TAG: 9201010209
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-2   EDITION: HOLIDAY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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FOREST SERVICE RAISES GRANTS TO LOCALITIES 14%

The U.S. Forest Service has increased its annual grant to Virginia localities by more than 14 percent this year.

The Forest Service will return $525,435 to Virginia counties, which include lands of either the Jefferson or George Washington National Forests. That amount is $65,849 more than last year.

By law, the Forest Service annually returns 25 percent of the revenues it collects from the national forests' resources to the states and counties from which they were taken.

The Jefferson, based in Roanoke, earned about $1.2 million last year, and the George Washington, with headquarters in Harrisonburg, made $906,000.

Nationwide, the Forest Service will award more than $323 million for roads and schools in 41 states and Puerto Rico.

Forest Service contributions to counties in the Roanoke area include: Alleghany, $33,567; Bath, $41,018; Bedford, $8,175; Bland, $31,409; Botetourt, $31,584; Carroll, $2,493; Craig, $49,963; Giles, $27,440; Grayson, $14,312; Highland, $13,761; Montgomery, $8,309; Pulaski, $8,404; Roanoke, $1,341; Rockbridge, $19,985; and Smyth, $31,697.

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