Out-of-touch withdrawal of Roadless Rule will damage Tongass fisheries, economies
This top-down, DC-driven move is something businesses, fishermen, and Southeast Alaska residents have repeatedly told the Administration we do not want.
JUNEAU, AK— SalmonState, Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, UnCruise Adventures and The Boat Company today reacted with disappointment and frustration to the U.S. Department of Agriculture announcement of the Environmental Impact Statement that will withdraw the Roadless Rule Protections across the entire country, including from the Tongass National Forest.
Today’s announcement is a clear example of a top-down, DC-driven approach to management in the Tongass that is out of touch not only with what people here want, but with the reality of the place itself. The main claim in the USDA’s release is that stripping Roadless protections will minimize wildfire risk, but the Tongass is a temperate rainforest, with rainfall ranging up to 225 inches per year in the wettest locations. It does not experience wildfires like those in other places.
The Roadless Rule currently protects the remaining unroaded areas of the forest, preventing the building of taxpayer-funded logging roads, but not essential infrastructure or other approved projects. The stripping of Roadless protections is happening as the timber industry is aggressively lobbying for increased logging, the Forest Service has sustained historic staffing losses, and the agency is turning over management to the State of Alaska for increased harvest.
“The Tongass drives multiple billion-dollar economies in Southeast Alaska precisely because of its wildness,” said SalmonState Southeast Futures Program Director Dan Kirkwood. “The forest’s best-performing assets are fisheries and outdoor recreation. Ensuring those assets stay intact should be our priority. This certainly has nothing to do with wildfire in this temperate rainforest.”
"Fisheries support the economy, culture, and Southeast Alaska way of life,” said Linda Behnken, Executive Director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association. ”And they do so sustainably, year after year, providing we take care of the forest, rivers and estuaries that the fish depend on. Compromising the fisheries, which annually contribute over $800 million in economic impact to this rural region, for short-term timber extraction funded by the federal government is an unthinkable trade off.”
“For years now, Southeast Alaskans have been building locally-driven, reliable, sustainable economies based on our wild salmon and wild places,” said SalmonState Executive Director Tim Bristol. “This top-down decision from Washington, D.C. is a step backwards that takes Alaska’s future out of Alaskans’ hands, wastes taxpayer dollars, and will harm our wild salmon and wild economies.”
“The Tongass is where America comes to experience Alaska. It’s big, wild, and awesome. My business is all about sharing this magnificent and beautiful forest with people from all over the world. Repealing the Roadless Rule won’t do anything to help us, and will actually hurt us. Why does wilderness matter? It's the reason visitors come to Alaska!” said Dan Blanchard, Owner and CEO of Uncruise Adventures.
“The natural values of intact watersheds are essential for the visitor industry in Southeast Alaska. People do not want to see clearcuts and decaying logging roads. There are thousands of jobs in Southeast Alaska in recreation and tourism. And there are thousands more in the seafood industry, which depends critically on salmon spawning streams in the old growth forests of the Tongass,” said Hunter McIntosh, President and Executive Director The Boat Company.
The 2001 "Roadless Area Conservation Rule" prohibits the construction of new taxpayer-funded logging roads into wild areas of the Tongass, which in many cases serve as critical undisturbed habitat for salmon and wildlife, provide high quality hunting and fishing opportunities and drive the booming recreation and tourism industry.
After decades of logging, Southeast Alaska already has thousands of miles of logging roads, many of which are dilapidated, unmaintained and blocking fish passage. Most corporations and former loggers have left the clearcut old growth logging industry, which was never profitable in Southeast Alaska except with taxpayer subsidies. Despite “America-first” promises, the remaining industry also ships valuable, 900-year-old forests to Asia for processing.
Background:
The top performing assets in the Tongass National Forest are wild lands and wild salmon runs. Tourism and fisheries together create 26% of the jobs in Southeast Alaska. Those jobs depend on the outstanding scenery and wild salmon runs that come from the Tongass. The Tongass is home to 13,000 miles of salmon streams that are the backbone of our wild salmon fisheries, which provide 25% of Alaska’s salmon catch. Each year the two National Forests in Alaska provide 390 million servings of wild salmon. That’s a salmon burger for everyone in the country, with leftovers. This diverse portfolio of habitat is protected, in part, by the Roadless Rule.
For the last half-decade, Southeast Alaskans have moved away from the destructive clearcut logging practices of years past to focus on new and more sustainable endeavors. Analysis of public comments on the Roadless Rule from the last comment period, in 2019, showed the vast majority of public comments supported Roadless protections. So did the vast majority of in-person Southeast Alaska testimony. Also during the last effort to remove Roadless Rule protections, Southeast Alaska tribes issued a formal petition asking for a Tribal Homelands Rulemaking that has not been addressed. Local communities and tribes are passing resolutions supporting conservation protections. Today’s announcement allows for comments through September 21, which is shorter than normal.
Today, the Tongass contains 1,700 miles of roads open for use and thousands more miles of abandoned, unmaintained logging roads. Agency experts have identified the need for decades worth of restoration work in order to stop and reverse the damage this crumbling infrastructure is having on fish and wildlife. In 2001, when the Rule was first implemented, the USFS identified a backlog of roughly $8.4 billion in deferred maintenance and reconstruction on the more than 386,000 miles of roads nationwide.