Tongass National Forest opened to more logging

CORDOVA—The new plan looks an awful lot like the old plan on the Tongass National Forest, in Southeast Alaska.

The Bush administration plan released today is designed to get the cut out, at the expense of residents, wildlife and conservation. 

This can't be called a surprise. Over the last few months we've been dealing with a series of timber sale proposals of exceptional size and viciousness. Apparently, this is their long-term plan.

A glance at the new Forest Plan Record of Decision map shows they propose to log hundreds of thousands of acres. It's more of a logging plan, than a forest management plan.  This is a last-ditch attempt to revitalize the failed old-growth logging industry in Southeast Alaska. 

 

The truth is, the highest future value in Southeast Alaska is in fishing, tourism, subsistence, and quality of life. Logged-over public lands are a dime a dozen. People come from all over the world to see unspoiled forests teeming with deer, wolves and salmon. 

There are useful things the forest service could be doing to help ensure this prosperous future. Restoration thinning for deer winter habitat, and thoughtful road restoration, are a better use of taxpayer money and Forest Service energy. 

The new plan does nothing to address a pair of looming crises: lack of winter deer habitat, and a money pit on the highly-subsidized system of logging roads. 

Deer Population on the Brink

Subsistence is the highest and best use of the wild, old-growth forests of the Tongass. Continued subsistence opportunities are threatened by a several generations of intensive logging, leaving very little winter habitat for deer.

Last winter saw major reductions in deer populations on the Tongass, leading to emergency closures of hunting. The major limiting factor for deer is the amount of winter habitat during severe winters—namely, low-elevation, especially south-facing, old-growth forests. 

These big trees are exactly the same areas targeted in the plan for logging. Yet, the new plan, like the old one, contains no assurance of continued subsistence opportunities. The Forest Service is willing to promise timber volume for mills, but is not willing to promise deer for subsistence users. 

The situation is made worse by Forest Service reliance of flawed computer models regarding protection for deer on individual timber sales. This head-in-the-sand approach leaves deer populations only two consecutive hard winters away from a catastrophic collapse.

Legacy of Road Maintenance

A major cost of the logging-centered approach are the tens of millions in federal subsidies needed to build and maintain the system of logging roads. 

There are tens of millions of dollars of deferred maintenance on the road system. The new plan doesn't propose to do much of anything about it. Instead, it proposes to dig the hole even deeper by building more new roads.

These roads kill fish by blocking migration and through erosion.  High road densities also basically ensure that wolves will be killed off. 

Ironically, the Forest Service is so far behind on road maintenance already, that they have to close roads as soon as they build them for lack of maintenance ability. Taxpayer-funded roads are built and opened for logging trucks, then closed to use by locals. 

So, expect the controversy over logging on the Tongass to continue. Cascadia will continue our work reviewing and challenging illegal timber sales, while pursuing and encouraging road restoration opportunties. 

For More Information, get in touch: 

gscott@cascwild.org  (907) 424-3835

or for more detailed information on Tongass Forest issues, go to the excellent page of Sitka Conservation Society.

-GWS 1/25/07