Groups Rally To End Tongass Forest Timber Sales

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Nearly a dozen conservation groups are appealing to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to put a stop to two timber sales in the Tongass National Forest.

The groups say both sales would cut old-growth trees in roadless areas of the Tongass – the largest national forest in the United States.

The groups – including conservation heavy-hitters such as the Sierra Club, the National Audubon Society, Defenders of Wildlife and the Wilderness Society – are asking Vilsack to uphold President Barack Obama's commitment to protect undeveloped areas in the national forests.

They are making the appeal this week and next in an ad running in two publications seen primarily inside the Washington, D.C., beltway: CongressDaily and Politico.

The ad says in bold, white letters, "Secretary Vilsack, now it's up to you to protect our Tongass rainforest."

In a break with the previous Bush administration, Obama promised during the presidential campaign to support a 2001 Clinton administration rule to protect roadless areas in national forests from commercial logging.

Then, last May Vilsack said he would personally review proposals to log in roadless areas.

The conservation groups are objecting to a timber sale planned for Kupreanof Island. The Central Kupreanof timber harvest would require 15 miles of new roads at a $6 million cost to taxpayers. The other timber sale on Suemez Island, the Sue timber sale, would require 2.2 miles of new roads.

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Both sales include inventoried roadless areas that are covered under the 2001 roadless rule, Jane Danowitz, director of the Pew Environment Group's U.S. public lands program, said Thursday.

Alaska Forest Service officials by advancing the sales are out-of-step with the stated intentions of the new administration, Danowitz said.

"It is now up to Secretary Vilsack to honor that commitment by stopping new roadless area logging in the Tongass and giving this crown jewel the full protection it deserves," she said.

Vilsack's May directive gave him sole decision-making authority over all proposed forest management or road construction projects in designated roadless areas in all states except Idaho. The Tongass was exempted from roadless protection in 2003.

Forest Service spokesman Ray Massey said the 2008 Tongass forest plan says that the agency will use low-value inventory in roadless areas to meet timber demands.

"It says it right in the plan. This should not be a surprise to anybody that we are doing this," he said. "You have to get it somewhere."

In July, Vilsack approved a timber sale in a roadless area of the Tongass. The sale allows Pacific Log and Lumber to clear-cut about 380 acres. About nine miles of roads will be constructed.

Comments

[JSanns55]

Again we are seeing politics rather than substance prevail in our US Public Lands policy. The Tongass is one of the largest temperate rainforests in the world & one that the Clinton Administration sought to protect - and rightfully so. The recent sales being proposed in Alaska would undermine decades of conservation efforts to protect this ecosystem for a dwindling timber industry in AK. Alaska's timber industry is a constant money sink to the American taxpayer, costing us millions of dollars to build roads & infrastructure while the timber companiesgarner all the profits. These recent sales will cost the US taxpayer more than $7 million just to build the new roads; and that does not even include the infrastructure to harvest such timber, which would more than double /triple that cost. It is time to conserve this natural treasure and ensure the protections of the Roadless Rule stand in the Tongass as well as within the entire country. It is time for this administration to uphold and enforce the 2001 rule in its entirety ; that is what President Obama supported as a US Senator and pledged to do on the campaign trail: ""Road construction in national forests can harm fish and wildlife habitats while polluting local lakes, rivers, and streams. The Roadless Area Conservation Rule—which was made on the basis of extensive citizen input—protects 58.5 million acres of national forest from such harmful building. I will be proud to support and defend it." http://presidentialprofiles08.com/Obama/tab4.html

[Alfie07]

This is outrageous. The Tongass is a national treasure and should not be logged. I hope you will continue to cover the Roadless Conservation Act. It is is a popular, balanced and science-based conservation policy with the overwhelming support of the American public.

[mn paddler]

Great coverage. This sale would violate the 2001 Roadless Rule, which received overwhelming support from Americans, garnering the most public comments on any federal rulemaking in history.

President Obama pleded to uphold and defend the rule during his campaign and this is a great opportunity for him to demonstrate his intent to keep that promise.

[MontanaBrownTrout]

Thanks for doing this story; the Tongass is an American treasurer that should be keep for future generations.

[research]

We have already logged same 99% of ALL the old growth forest.

Why don't we leave some in the national Parks, since that's what parks are for.

Since the logger have ALWAYS reforested responsibly, there is plenty of new growth to log.

Right?

[ccairnes]

The above comment is unintelligible. No logger has EVER reforested ANYWHERE in the Tongass National Forest and the reason the remaining old-growth is threatened is because there is NO second/new growth available.

[research]

Well, then, that's the loggers fault isn't it?

[GuyRC]

You see, once you build the roads those areas are no longer roadless. So, the rules against logging in roadless areas don't apply. Environmentalists just don't understand laws, the constitution, and America.

[ccairnes]

Americans worked for years to establish the National Environmental Policy Act. It's the law. The United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service is required to obey the law, but in reality they do everything they can to circumvent the law in favor of industrial logging, including lying and distorting science in the Environmental Impact Statements they produce. The article refers to Alaska Forest Service officials, but in fact there are no Alaska Forest Service officials. Forest Service employees are federal officials who are paid with taxpayers money to work on behalf on the American people, but you wouldn't know it from what they are doing; you'd think they were being paid by the timber industry.