RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) - Black Hills National Forest is honeycombed with private land, and that public-private mix, land managers say, can cost taxpayers money and degrade surrounding wildlands.

Now, private citizens and government officials are working together in a committee to devise a remedy for the Black Hills.

The "open space subcommittee" of the Black Hills National Forest Advisory Board will propose federal legislation to allow the U.S. Forest Service to sell high-value land near Black Hills towns. The Forest Service would use money from those sales to purchase remote private tracts now surrounded by the national forest.

Black Hills National Forest Supervisor Craig Bobzien emphasizes the proposal is only for willing sellers and buyers. "We're being very careful about how we're defining this and laying it out," Bobzien said. "It's not about a government land grab."

But the proposal does address a national problem, and if it works here, it could be used on other national forests.

"It's just so similar to challenges across the country," Bobzien said. "I want to present it to our regional forester and to the chief of the Forest Service."

The "challenge" Bobzien and other forest supervisors face is development that encroaches on public lands.

Former Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth identified "loss of open space" as one of the four main "threats" to national forests and grasslands. The other three: fires and fuels, invasive species and unmanaged recreation.

Loss of open space is particularly critical in the Black Hills, which have more private land than most national forests.

The Big Horn National Forest, for example, is about the same size as the Black Hills National Forest - 1.5 million acres - but the Big Horns have just 7,500 acres of private land.

In contrast, within the exterior boundaries of the Black Hills National Forest, there are 300,000 acres of private land, or 20 percent of the area.

Bob Paulson, local program director for the Nature Conservancy, says history and technology have created a unique situation in the Black Hills.

The Black Hills were not homesteaded in grids, such as the prairie, Paulson said. Rather, they were homesteaded by survey or by mineral patents.

"They could literally go in and survey out the meadows," he said.

And meadows, Paulson said, "have all the stuff that critters need."

Still, most of that land has been used for grazing - that is, until the age of the Internet.

"People are living farther and farther away from town because they can," said Paulson, who also serves on the open space subcommittee.

Civil engineer Craig Kjar, who represents the Forest Service on the open space subcommittee, said the Forest Service already can trade land with private landowners - at least in theory. But that process is so cocooned in red tape, it can take 10 to 15 years to complete.

"There are 64 separate steps," Kjar said. "Some of them are simple, like registering the deed, but some are complicated.

"We're looking at alternatives to speed up the process," Paulson said.

The "open space" problem is especially acute in the southern Black Hills, according to Custer County highway superintendent John Culberson, another member of the subcommittee.

"Custer's got the problem," he said, during a drive into the Black Hills west of town.

North Pole Road off of Highway 16, for example, is actually a Forest Service road. "It's only 16 feet wide," Culberson said. The maximum legal width for a vehicle is 8½ feet, so two-way traffic is "pretty tight."

In an emergency, limited access can be a life-and-death problem.

"I came up here on an ambulance call for a guy having a heart attack," Culberson said. He's a volunteer emergency medical technician.

Instead of an 8-mile trip to the patient's home, the ambulance crew had to drive 13 miles because access to a remote subdivision was limited.

"That's hard when you have a dispatcher telling you life-support measures are under way." The man lived.

Still, large tracts off North Pole Road already are platted for development.

"I can see what's going to happen," Culberson said. "Every one of these private tracts is going to be developed."

A few miles west, Culberson points out a $2 million home, which is entirely surrounded by national forest and accessible only by a Forest Service road that is barely a step above a two-track trail.

But Culberson is more worried about more populous subdivisions, which can generate political pressure for services such as snow removal - something the county cannot afford in remote areas.

Culberson said it was too late to prevent development in areas such as North Pole Road, but he hopes the proposed legislation will slow development farther out.

"We have an opportunity for the United States government and local governments to team up and do something that makes sense for tax payers," Culberson said. He is also a member of the Custer City Council.

Like Bobzien, Culberson emphasizes: "We're talking about willing buyers and sellers here. We're not talking about condemnation or eminent domain."

The open space subcommittee will meet with staff from the state's congressional delegation next month, and committee members will report their progress at the July 18 meeting of the Black Hills National Forest Advisory Board.

Bobzien hopes a draft of the proposed legislation is ready by September.

How long it takes to make it law -or whether the proposal will survive the process -is anyone's guess. Similar legislation has been passed for national forests in Texas, Arizona, Idaho and North Carolina, Kjar said, but those laws apply to specific parcels. Bobzien said the Black Hills proposal would be unique in that it would provide an ongoing mechanism for tracts.

Whatever shape the legislation takes, it will not result in land deals that are speedy by private standards.

Culberson thinks some sort of citizens' panel would also review sales of national forest land near towns and purchases in remote areas.

"I don't see the Forest Service making these decisions alone," he said.

Culberson also predicted there would be opponents to some sales.

"There'll be some people who are not going to be happy because they've lost their private park."

Kjar said the deals would have to follow the complex process of public comment and environmental analysis required by the National Environmental Policy Act.

But Kjar also thinks, if the legislation is approved, it will be easy to find properties to buy. "There are willing sellers who approach us every year," he said.

Paulson agreed.

The Nature Conservancy buys land and negotiates with landowners for conservation easements, and Paulson said many owners of remote tracts would welcome the chance to preserve the rural character of their land.

But Paulson warned that time was short. "We have a small window to do some good here before the prices become ridiculous," he said.

Culberson thinks the scattered developments and the open-space problem raise a fundamental question about the quality of life in the Black Hills.

"At what point do we develop ourselves out of being a nice place to live?" he asked.