The Fate of the Tongass

Congress considers a bill to allow a single corporation to clearcut pieces of America's biggest ancient forest

Sprawling across the Alaska Panhandle, the Tongass National Forest is by far the largest of America's 155 national forests. At 26,000 square miles, it's about the size of West Virginia.

Teeming with old-growth spruce, cedar and hemlock trees, Tongass is a prime example of virgin temperate rainforest. And it is biologically rich, with populations of bald eagles, black and brown bears and five different species of Pacific salmon.

But a bill working its way through Congress could lead to the destruction of much of the remaining ancient forests of Tongass. If passed, S.881: Southeast Alaska Native Land Entitlement Finalization Act will grant extensive clearcutting right to Sealaska, a large timber corporation. The bill is sponsored by the Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski.

Clearcutting is a controversial practice that cuts down most or all trees in a harvest area whether or not they are commercially viable, leaving no canopy. This practice leads to a host of problems, such as soil erosion, loss of biodiversity, ecosystem instability, increased wildfires and loss of carbon storage leading to increased global warming.

"Sealaska Corporation has already clearcut some 300,000 acres of the best and biggest trees on the Tongass, exporting the timber to international markets," said Kathy Kilmer of the Wilderness Society in an email.

"The Tongass must be protected for its ecological values and to help local communities transition to a more sustainable forest economy," Kilmer said.

S. 881 "does not represent the future for Southeast Alaska. It represents a dying industry that should be relegated to the past," writes Myla Poelstra in SitNews (Ketchikan, Alaska).

"While Sealaska is requesting access to new lands to support its declining timber base, the rest of Southeast Alaska is looking to more sustainable avenues for their future economy. Just like the 'gold rush' days of the late 1800's, the timber industry's time in Southeast Alaska has clearly come and gone. The main reason for this are changing attitudes toward conservation and sustainable resource use. The economy of the world has changed, and it is no longer acceptable to destroy irreplaceable resources to profit small numbers of people. Sealaska's methods of clearcut harvesting can never be represented as sustainable, as evidenced by their selections in this bill."

GET INVOLVED

• Sign a Wilderness Society letter urging Congress to oppose S. 881
  
• Protect an acre of rainforest through Conservation International
• Donate to the Rainforest Action Network

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image: U.S. Forest Service