Maryland environmental officials are cranking up a campaign to convince influential skeptics that spending $22 million to preserve 25,000 acres of forest, even during a budget crunch, is a wise idea.

No question, it's a hard sell. Although forestry groups and environmentalists are preparing to support the plan, key lawmakers and the next governor are decrying the idea as fiscally foolhardy in light of the state's $1.8 billion budget shortfall.

"Now is the time when we need to be reining in spending, and every dollar that does not need to be spent should not be spent until this budget is balanced," said Paul E. Schurick, a spokesman for Gov.-elect Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.

Officials at the state Department of Natural Resources confirmed this week that they have struck a deal with Glatfelter Pulp Wood Co., which wants to sell nearly 25,000 acres on the Eastern Shore and in Southern Maryland before the end of the year.

The plan represents the second-largest land preservation deal in state history.

To ensure the forest is not developed, the Conservation Fund, a national environmental group, has agreed to buy the land outright.

The state would then buy from the fund nearly 4,000 acres, and the development rights to the rest. The fund would sell the remaining acres -- almost 21,000 -- to a timber company, the Forestland Group, which would continue to log it.

The deal would have to win approval from the state Board of Public Works, which next meets Dec. 18.

Its members are Gov. Parris N. Glendening, Comptroller William Donald Schaefer and Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp. Schaefer is expected to oppose the plan. Kopp, who represents the legislature on the board, says she will respect the wishes of leading lawmakers.

In the meantime, DNR officials have begun lobbying. They've called the Senate president and House speaker, and are hoping for a meeting with Del. Howard P. Rawlings, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

Confirmed support

Yesterday they contacted a timber industry group, the Maryland Forest Association, seeking its support. Although it has not examined the plan, Jim Mallow, a forester and an association vice president, says the group is inclined to back it.

"Who knows -- if Glatfelter is bent on divesting themselves of this property, and if it doesn't get divested to someone like this, there may be houses, parking lots and shopping centers on it," he said. "It needs to be kept, No. 1, as forest."

Susan Brown, executive director of the Maryland League of Conservation Voters, agrees. Yesterday she began contacting other environmentalists to enlist help. "This opportunity may not come up again," she said. "The timing is such that it's going to have a lot of political overtones when it really shouldn't."

Landmark project

Glendening would like to secure such a landmark project before he leaves office next month. But proponents say the plan -- almost two years in the making -- isn't about the governor's ambition.

The land is of great ecological importance, they say, and would help fulfill the state's pledge to preserve land to restore the Chesapeake Bay. The plan would also save about 100 jobs in the timber industry.

In addition, it's relatively cheap, they say. The state would pay about $700 an acre for development rights; the average price for easement purchases statewide is more than $2,000.

Michael J. Nelson, DNR's assistant secretary for capital programs, was preparing detailed responses to Rawlings and the Senate budget committee chairwoman, Barbara A. Hoffman, who oppose the plan.

Nelson and others argue that the money to pay for the deal is already appropriated. The bulk of the money -- $12 million -- could not be used to solve the budget shortfall because it would come from bonds set aside for the Greenprint program.

Finding funds

Another $8 million would come from money earmarked for land preservation in Program Open Space, funded through real estate transfer taxes.

The state would still need to come up with $2 million.

DNR points out that the legislature has cut its land acquisition budget in half for the next two years; it now accounts for three-tenths of 1 percent of the total state budget.

But Schurick and others say they'd like the option of raiding Project Open Space once again. "Until the new governor and the legislative leaders decide whether or not to do that, we shouldn't be moving ahead with this purchase," he said.