KETCHIKAN, Alaska — The state of Alaska has filed motions to intervene in three lawsuits filed by environmental groups against a proposed timber sale by the U.S. Forest Service on Prince of Wales Island.
Gov. Sean Parnell’s office on Monday announced the state’s request to the U.S. District Court in the three cases, including one that challenges the 2008 Tongass Land Management plan that allows the Big Thorne timber sale to move forward. The state wants to join as a party defendant or a friend of the court, the Ketchikan Daily Mirror reported.
“Any delay to the Big Thorne project not only prevents the timber industry from contributing to a diverse and robust economy, but also reduces vital funding for schools and roads in our rural areas,” Parnell said in a prepared statement.
The lawsuits were filed after the Forest Service in August moved to allow the sale to proceed. The Big Thorne project would provide nearly 155 million board feet from about 8,500 acres In the Tongass National Forest.
The state received more than $221 million in Tongass timber payments between 1970 and 2014, according to one of the state’s motions to intervene.
Earthjustice filed two lawsuits in federal court soon after the decision by Tongass National Forest Supervisor Forrest Cole to move forward.
The Big Thorne sale is targeted specifically in one of the lawsuits filed by Earthjustice on behalf of the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council and other environmental groups. The second Earthjustice lawsuit alleges the 2008 management plan fails to maintain old-growth trees as habitat for wolves and deer.
The third lawsuit was filed soon after by Greenpeace and other groups and presents similar challenges to the timber sale and management plan.
In a response to the state’s effort to participate in the lawsuits, the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council said the governor supports the status quo that sees 50 percent of old-growth timber from the Tongass shipped overseas.
“Unlike Sean Parnell, Southeast Alaska Conservation Council is working to keep timber dollars local by supporting small sawmills, and pressuring the Forest Service to design sales that will benefit local millers without harming Southeast’s real economic drivers: fishing and tourism,” the group said in a statement.
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