Two western North Dakota counties this year are getting half the Forest Service payments from a fund set up to help areas with national grasslands.

McKenzie County is getting about $4 million and Billings County about $2 million through the 1937 Bankhead Jones Farm Tenant Act. It returns to counties with federal land 25 percent of the revenue generated from it through such activities as oil leasing. The money may be used only for roads and schools.

The two counties together have about 790,500 acres of Forest Service-controlled national grasslands. Energy production there has boomed in recent years as the price of oil has climbed. Ten years ago, McKenzie County received only about $1.2 million through the Bankhead Jones program.

"There was a period of about 10 years where that was an average payment," County Auditor Frances Olson said.

In the past two years, McKenzie County has received a total of about $9.3 million. Billings County has received about $5 million over the two-year period.

"The big revenue generator is oil and gas leasing," said Dave Pieper, a Forest Service supervisor in Bismarck.

Other revenue-generators on Forest Service grasslands - the majority of which are in the Great Plains - include livestock grazing and recreation such as camping fees. Pieper said that revenue is "minimal" compared to mineral leases and oil royalty income.

Olson is quick to point out that increased oil activity also leads to more wear and tear on roads, and says the Bankhead Jones money is not exactly a windfall.

"The reverse side of it is, it reflects the number of acres that we're not receiving local property taxes on," she said.

The $4 million McKenzie County is getting through the program this year is equivalent to 40 percent of a typical annual county budget, Olson said.

"Without this money, we probably wouldn't be doing some of the (road repair projects) we're doing," she said.

Nationally, about $12.2 million is being given back to counties with national grasslands through the Bankhead Jones program. Counties in North Dakota and South Dakota are getting about $8 million of the total, Pieper said.

"The reason for that is primarily our oil and gas program, the existing production we have on the Little Missouri National Grassland" in western North Dakota, he said. "We have well over 500 oil and gas wells."

Pieper said oil and gas production also is found on the Comanche National Grassland in southeastern Colorado and the Cimarron National Grassland in western Kansas, "but not to the degree that we have here in North Dakota."

Olson said the high payments for McKenzie and Billings counties will not last forever, because there is a limit on the amount of federal land that can be leased.

"Those are eight, 10-year leases," she said. "If (energy companies) have got everything leased up last year and this year, it will level off."