Obama Administration Approves First Roadless Logging Contract In Alaska's Tongass National Forest

This week, the Obama administration approved the sale of timber in a roadless national forest in Alaska. The Tongass National Forest is a 17 million acre temperate rain forest in southeast Alaska, which is home to both endangered species and native Alaskan tribes. It is the largest temperate rain forest in the United States.

From The Juneau Empire:

Orion North timber sale is the first such awarded since Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced in May he would personally review all timber sales in roadless areas of national forests in the next year.

[....]

Tongass environmental activists had been hoping Vilsack's announcement would translate to a temporary moratorium on timber road-building in roadless areas, including Orion North and three other timber sales on the Tongass. President Obama supported the roadless rule in his campaign.

Read the full story here.

In this video, produced by savebiogems.org, you can see both the natural beauty of the landscape and wildlife In The Tongass Forest, along with the destruction that logging has caused.

Alaskan Senators Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich both supported the administration's decision to allow the timber sale, explaining that it would provide jobs to the area's underemployed loggers.

Environmentalists have long criticized allowing logging in national forests as not only destructive, but a waste of taxpayer money.

According to The Wilderness Society:

American taxpayers have not only watched as the Tongass has been picked apart by road building and logging, they've paid for the privilege. The tab extends beyond $750 million over 20 years. In a single year alone, the Forest Service spent $36 million on the Tongass timber program and got back in revenues only $1 million. Subsidies for logging roads account for nearly half of timber program costs annually.

Comments

[AKForestService]

12:43 PM on 07/28/2009

We understand that many people who will never go to the Tongass National Forest just want to know that places like it will continue to exist in perpetuity. And in many cases, they don't know the facts- they just want it protected. Fortunately, the Forest Service is made up of thousands of dedicated professionals who care deeply about the forests and their resources, and about the decisions made to manage the forests. The current forest plan for the Tongass is based on sound science and volumes of public input. None of our forests are national parks and most are managed for multiple use to include recreation, solitude, water source protection, and natural resource extraction. It's a delicate balance and not an easy one. But we try.
We've been seeing comments on blogs all over the U.S. encouraging people to write to "Save the Tongass and its roadless areas and the many endangered species that live there." There are no endangered species on the Tongass National Forest, and that is a fact.

[rr52]

12:22 PM on 07/28/2009

This doesn't surprise me. Between Vilsack and Salazar, the environment is going to suffer. Those of us who were disgusted at the former administration are really frustrated by some of Obama's choices for the environment. Smart for him, bad for us that want some real protection for our forests and critters.

[ross1776]

02:26 AM on 07/28/2009

I would be more upset at the amount of money the taxpayers are paying for that contract. Since most likely that logging company will get that timber for free and sell it to a developer or someone else for a profit, the taxpayers shouldn't be paying to have that done at all. If the taxpayers are paying, then the timber cut shoul be open for bid. Or the contract should be that in exchange for the timber, they get to keep the timber. Taxpayers shouldn't be funding this, since they are going to reap the rewards taxfree.

Unbelieveable the spins.

[ross1776]

02:25 AM on 07/28/2009

Is this another "terrorism" threat by the liberal element once again?

Tongass is over 17 million acres of national forest. The contract that was awarded was for 360 acres, and for a specified amount of board feet - and one tree equals several thousand board feet. Do any of you fact check any of the information you find on the web?

There was a wildfire in the national forests in Alaska that leveled and burned over 1 million forested acres - way more than the 360 acres that are being set aside for this. The land that has been approved is an island.

The federal government owns no land at all within Alaska's state boundaries, so the federal government legally has no authority really or control over what Alaska does with the land within its own borders. That land should be put up for private sale, actually, since the state and federal government really aren't supposed to hold any "property" at all, the citizens are.

[rr52]

12:24 PM on 07/28/2009

More than that pal. http://www.sitnews.us/0609/062609/062609_logjam.html.

[Marya Gomez]

05:38 PM on 07/20/2009

Sign the petition to Obama to reverse the decision! http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/266674325

[lilcho]

03:49 PM on 07/19/2009

Not cool..
Citizens should be allowed to vote on these bills... It'd be pretty easy.. Everyone could log in under their social security number and vote yes or no.

[rr52]

12:30 PM on 07/28/2009

I agree. I sign so many petitions I wonder what happens to them because they don't seem to reflect on any of the decisions that are made. If we all had a vote, but then again there are a lot of sheeple around that will sway with the wind, and we know who are the windiest.

[quest44]

10:19 AM on 07/19/2009

Obama needs to realise that when you cut down trees your not helping mother earth your hurting her not to mention our air quality . Trees clean our air and we actually need more of them not less considering the pollution we have from factories etc.

[roninroshi]

09:56 AM on 07/19/2009

This is something i would expect McCain/Palin to do...Obama needs to wake up and save this area not destroy it.

[leevntheus]

03:37 AM on 07/19/2009

What's really strange is how, later in the week, Obama completely reversed course in Oregon, and STOPPED logging there, where unemployment, especially in rugged rural forestlands is at 40%. Oregon forests are well managed and have had decades of debate and studies to create viable forest logging management. A program that WORKS is halted...at the same time they START a new asinine program in a previously undisturbed region.

Baffling...truly baffling.

[TruthmongerII]

01:39 AM on 07/19/2009

I'd expect Republicans to twist a national park into a tree farm; I had expected more from Obama based upon his "bait-and-switch" campaign promises.

[AKForestService]

12:48 PM on 07/28/2009

The Tongass is not a national park. It's a national forest and managed for multiple use, including recreation, subsistence, solitude, water, wildlife, and natural resource extraction.

[richie42]

12:42 AM on 07/19/2009

Go Obama.

This is why I voted for him.

[dhinds]

07:38 PM on 07/18/2009

Why wasn't the unproductive and counterproductive investment made in Iraq spent rebuilding the USA's aging infrastructure and New Orleans, educating the nations youth, researching the causes and cures of disease, developing renewable energy sources and strengthening the nations security AT HOME?

More importantly, why isn't President Obama doing more of that now (instead of opening Alaska's National Forests to logging, holding prisoners with no due process, bailing out banks built on avarice and appointing Monsanto insiders to head the USDA and FDA)?

Achieving these goals are what governments are for and the reason is simple - every one of them involves shared resources and universal needs.

Barack, you're smarter than that. Please do the job we elected you do.

[ccairnes]

02:28 PM on 07/18/2009

One of the most bogus things about logging in the Tongass is its justification of "jobs, jobs, jobs" while the work that really needs to be done here remains underfunded. Wasting $36 million on the timber program while fish habitat restoration limps along and invasive species spread like wild fire because the Forest Service invest 1/2 of one employee to the task is misappropriation. The Forest Service gives us the excuse that the invasive species spread beyond federal lands on to state, local and private lands only shows another misappropriation because they have plenty of legal muscle to apply to defending the scientifically indefensible Tongass Land Management Plan in court, but can't focus the legal power of the federal government into exercising emanate domain, not to take anyones property, but to eradicate a invasive noxious weed that is toxic to the livers of mammals.

[HLL]

05:35 PM on 07/18/2009

Agree. Tragic decision.

If you wish to take action -

Email the White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

Sign the NRCD petition to save the Tongass National Forest:
http://www.nrdconline.org/campaign/biogems_tongass_0109_a/step1

One more petition - Tell Vilsack: Don't log Tongass National Forest:
http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/tongass/?r_by=5033-1769049-33Gwsbx&rc=paste

[alwqb]

12:51 PM on 07/18/2009

Very Sad. When will we learn that cutting down our forest will kill us.

[Js420]

11:31 AM on 07/18/2009

Where's HEMP?

[ccpostman]

01:04 PM on 07/18/2009

Don't much care for pot growers in the forests.

They are as bad as the loggers. They set deadly people traps, and leave a mess of pipes and chemicals in the forest.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4652462
http://www.theadventurelife.org/2009/04/marijuana-growers-chase-campers-from-national-forest/

Keep Pot/hemp OUT of this issue please.

[ChristopherMarlowe]

03:51 PM on 07/18/2009

ccpostman said: "Don't much care for pot growers in the forests. They are as bad as the loggers." --> I think this reply misses the point. Although I cannot speak for js420, I KNOW that hemp does not need to be grown in national forests. It is grown there only to avoid detection because it is illegal.

The reason why Hemp is relevant is because a lot of paper products are made from timber. Hemp makes cheaper, cleaner paper and it grows back a lot faster. Also, many other products could be made from hemp that would replace wood and therefore reduce the need to cut down trees. Also hemp can be grown in places that might not otherwise be deemed productive.

I think Hemp should be definitely considered.

[nodonjuan]

04:38 PM on 07/18/2009

ccpostman,

What an ignorant statement. If Marijuana was legalized it would be farmed not grown in a forest. Hemp can't be left OUT of this issue.