Trump Admin Moves Closer to Slashing Protections for World’s Largest Temperate Rainforest

The Trump administration has moved one step closer to opening Earth's largest intact temperate rainforest to logging.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service announced it would draft an environmental impact statement exempting Alaska's Tongass National Forest from the 2001 Roadless Rule, which prohibits road construction and timber harvesting on 58.5 million acres of National Forest land. The administration's proposal would open more than half of the Tongass National Forest's 16.7 million acres to logging, The Washington Post reported.
Environmental advocates immediately raised the alarm about the proposal. The Tongass is an important habitat for wildlife, including salmon, and an important tool for fighting the climate crisis. It stores around 8 percent of all the carbon sequestered in U.S. national forests in the lower 48 states, Earthjustice pointed out.
BREAKING: The Trump administration just issued a plan to slash protections across 9 million acres of the Tongass Na… https://t.co/ckzLgTdPbD— Earthjustice (@Earthjustice)1571169289.0
"The world's largest remaining intact temperate rainforest containing vital old-growth trees is under attack because of efforts to undo the Roadless Rule," Osprey Orielle Lake, Executive Director of Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN), told Earthjustice. "The Tongass Rainforest of Alaska — the traditional homelands of the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian Peoples — has been called 'the nation's climate forest' due to its unsurpassed ability to sequester carbon and mitigate climate impacts."
The Washington Post first reported that the Trump administration would seek to open the forest to development in August, and President Donald Trump himself has asked Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue to exempt the forest from logging limits. In doing so, he acted in accordance with the wishes of Alaska's Republican congressional delegation, who has asked him to open up the forest.
"As Alaskans know well, the Roadless Rule hinders our ability to responsibly harvest timber, develop minerals, connect communities, or build energy projects to lower costs — including renewable energy projects like hydropower, all of which severely impedes the economy of Southeast," Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) said in a statement reported by The Washington Post.
However, the Post noted that timber provides less than one percent of southeast Alaska's jobs. Seafood processing, on the other hand, provides eight percent and tourism 17 percent. Around 40 percent of West Coast wild salmon spawn in the Tongass.
"The push for an Alaska-specific roadless rule has always been just pretext for continuing to subsidize Southeast Alaska's old-growth timber industry, and it will do so at the expense of recreation and fishing, Native communities, and wildlife," Andy Moderow, Alaska director at Alaska Wilderness League, said in the Earthjustice press release.
BREAKING: new @forestservice proposal would undermine law that protects the Tongass National Forest from logging, r… https://t.co/Qi8lbsDDHZ— Alaska Wilderness League ❄️ (@Alaska Wilderness League ❄️)1571171206.0
Alaska's native communities also spoke out against the proposed change.
"You know it's sad that we have to continue to fight our own government to protect our forests and streams," President of the Organized Village of Kake Joel Jackson told Alaska's Energy Desk, as NPR reported.
He said his community, which relies on the Tongass for food, may sue the Forest Service.
The Forest Service proposal offers six possibilities for the Tongass. The least extreme would mean leaving protections as they are and the most extreme would mean opening all 9.2 million currently roadless acres. The latter is what the Forest Service says it prefers, according to NPR.
An additional 5.7 million acres of the forest have been designated as wilderness by Congress and are therefore safe from any development, The Washington Post reported.
- Trump Moves to Open 1.5 Million Acres of Alaskan Refuge for Oil ... ›
- Trump Pushed for Mining Project That Could Destroy Alaska Salmon ... ›
- Trump Administration to Allow Logging in Pristine National Forest - EcoWatch ›
- Trump to Remove Protections for Tongass National Forest, the 'Lungs of North America' - EcoWatch ›
New EarthX Special 'Protecting the Amazon' Suggests Ways to Save the World’s Greatest Rainforest
To save the planet, we must save the Amazon rainforest. To save the rainforest, we must save its indigenous peoples. And to do that, we must demarcate their land.
A new EarthxTV film special calls for the protection of the Amazon rainforest and the indigenous people that call it home. EarthxTV.org
- Meet the 'Women Warriors' Protecting the Amazon Forest - EcoWatch ›
- Indigenous Tribes Are Using Drones to Protect the Amazon ... ›
- Amazon Rainforest Will Collapse by 2064, New Study Predicts ... ›
- Deforestation in Amazon Skyrockets to 12-Year High Under Bolsonaro ›
- Amazon Rainforest on the Brink of Turning Into a Net Carbon Emitter ... ›
EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
By Anke Rasper
"Today's interim report from the UNFCCC is a red alert for our planet," said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
The report, released Friday, looks at the national climate efforts of 75 states that have already submitted their updated "nationally determined contributions," or NDCs. The countries included in the report are responsible for about 30% of the world's global greenhouse gas emissions.
- World Leaders Fall Short of Meeting Paris Agreement Goal - EcoWatch ›
- UN Climate Change Conference COP26 Delayed to November ... ›
- 5 Years After Paris: How Countries' Climate Policies Match up to ... ›
- Biden Win Puts World 'Within Striking Distance' of 1.5 C Paris Goal ... ›
- Biden Reaffirms Commitment to Rejoining Paris Agreement ... ›
Trending
Plastic Burning Makes It Harder for New Delhi Residents to See, Study Suggests
India's New Delhi has been called the "world air pollution capital" for its high concentrations of particulate matter that make it harder for its residents to breathe and see. But one thing has puzzled scientists, according to The Guardian. Why does New Delhi see more blinding smogs than other polluted Asian cities, such as Beijing?
- This Indian Startup Turns Polluted Air Into Climate-Friendly Tiles ... ›
- How to Win the Fight Against Plastic - EcoWatch ›
In a historic move, the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) voted Thursday to ban hydraulic fracking in the region. The ban was supported by all four basin states — New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New York — putting a permanent end to hydraulic fracking for natural gas along the 13,539-square-mile basin, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
- Appalachian Fracking Boom Was a Jobs Bust, Finds New Report ... ›
- Long-Awaited EPA Study Says Fracking Pollutes Drinking Water ... ›
- Pennsylvania Fracking Water Contamination Much Higher Than ... ›
Colombia is one of the world's largest producers of coffee, and yet also one of the most economically disadvantaged. According to research by the national statistic center DANE, 35% of the population in Columbia lives in monetary poverty, compared to an estimated 11% in the U.S., according to census data. This has led to a housing insecurity issue throughout the country, one which construction company Woodpecker is working hard to solve.
- Kenyan Engineer Recycles Plastic Into Bricks Stronger Than ... ›
- Could IKEA's New Tiny House Help Fight the Climate Crisis ... ›