Clear Cutting In The Tongass

On Monday, the Obama Administration approved the U.S. Forest Service sale of timber to a Ketchikan mill in a roadless area of the Tongass National Forest. The Tongass National Forest is a 17 million acre temperate rain forest in southeast Alaska. It is home to both native Alaskan people and communities aas well as endangered species. It is the largest temperate rain forest in the United States.

President Clinton had signed Roadless Area Conservation Rule in 2001, which prevented companies from taking timber from roadless areas by banning road-building on about 58 million acres of national forest land nationwide. President Obama had supported the Roadless Area Conservation Rule in his campaign.

Road construction in national forests can harm fish and wildlife habitats while polluting local lakes, rivers, and streams. The Roadless Area Conservation Rule—which was made on the basis of extensive citizen input—protects 58.5 million acres of national forest from such harmful building. I will be proud to support and defend it. — Sen. Barack Obama, League of Conservation Voters Candidate Questionnaire

The sale was primarily approved by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to give an ‘economic boost to the area’.

I really understand what it means to be out of work. But at the same time, we can’t continue to create jobs that hurt the environment just to support people. This does not make any sense. What we need to do instead is promote job training in other fields. Loggers, and logging companies, just can’t expect to be supported this way. If they are out of work, they need to find other ways to support themselves. That may seem to be a harsh opinion, but it’s reality.

Read the report JuneauEmpire.com
Read what environmentalists have to say on EarthJustice.org.

This is also a financial boondoggle for the government.

In March, five environmental groups sued the most recent Orion North offering. They said the Forest Service had failed to incorporate new scientific information that had emerged since it last studied the area a decade ago. The judge did not agree, however.

The environmentalists have appealed to a higher court.

“Just building the road will cost four times as much revenue as the Forest Service is going to get from the timber sale,” said Waldo of Earthjustice. — JuneauEmpire.com