U.S. FOREST SERVICE PUSHES AHEAD TO GUT PROTECTIONS FOR AMERICA’S CLIMATE FOREST | WPN World People News

Despite the ongoing and overwhelming COVID-19 crisis, the U.S. Forest Service has not slowed its push to allow a new wave of logging in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. On Sept 24, the agency announced a Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) advancing its proposal to eliminate the Roadless Rule in the Tongass, opening vast swaths of irreplaceable old-growth temperate rainforest to clearcut logging.

The dramatic policy shift targets the Roadless Rule, a federal safeguard that restricts logging and road-building in designated wild areas. For two decades, the rule has protected old-growth forests and critical wildlife habitat in Alaska and across the country. Protecting these trees, which are champions at absorbing carbon, has helped make the Tongass a buffer against climate change. The release of the FEIS is a near-final step in the rulemaking process.

In response, a wide-ranging coalition of organizations dedicated to protecting the Tongass issued the following statement:

“This plan to roll back the Roadless Rule will open the gates to clearcutting countless century-old trees, with irreversible ecological consequences. The Tongass is not only America’s largest national forest and a treasured public lands area, but it’s sometimes called ‘America’s Climate Forest.’ This temperate rainforest plays a critical role in fighting climate change by retaining vast stores of carbon in its old-growth trees.

“The Tongass is crucial for indigenous communities that rely on hunting, fishing and wild harvest as a matter of survival.

“Roadless areas are important for imperiled wildlife like the Alexander Archipelago wolf, Queen Charlotte goshawk and marten, among others. We oppose any weakening of the Roadless Rule in the Tongass, and will challenge the lifting of restrictions against logging at every turn.”

Many have raised concerns that rolling back the Roadless Rule in the Tongass will affect their lives and work. Listen to their voices in the following videos, which are available for publication.

Source: Earthjustice