WASHINGTON — More than 3 million acres in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest would be opened to logging and road building under a Bush administration decision that supporters believe will revive Alaska’s timber industry but environmentalists fear will devastate the forest.
The Bush administration on Friday released a management plan for the southeast Alaska forest, the largest in the country at nearly 17 million acres. The plan would leave about 3.4 million acres open to logging and other development, including about 2.4 million acres that are now remote and roadless. About 663,000 acres are in areas considered most valuable for timber production.
Alaska Regional Forester Denny Bschor, who approved the new Tongass management plan, said its goals are to sustain the diversity and health of the forest, provide livelihoods and subsistence for Alaska residents and ensure a source of recreation and solitude for forest visitors.
“There may be disappointment that the (allowable timber sales) hasn’t increased or diminished, depending on your viewpoint,” Bschor said in a statement. “What is significant in the amended plan, however, is our commitment to the state of Alaska to provide an economic timber sale program, which will allow the current industry to stabilize, and for an integrated timber industry to become established.”
The new plan adds 90,000 acres to old-growth reserves and protects 47,000 acres of land considered most vulnerable to development. It also pledges the Forest Service to work with American Indian tribes to protect and maintain sacred sites across the forest, often labeled the “crown jewel” in the national forest system. At more than 26,000 square miles, the Tongass is larger than 10 states.
Environmentalists said the plan continues a Bush policy of catering to the timber industry.
“The new plan suffers from the same central problem as the old plan. It leaves 2.4 million acres of wild, roadless backcountry areas open to clear cutting and new logging roads,” said Tom Waldo, an attorney for the environmental group Earthjustice.
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