Keep Roadless Protections on the Tongass
Photo by Tyler Bell | SalmonState
The Trump Administration is planning a nation-wide repeal of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which in the Tongass protects important fish and deer habitat from clear cutting.
In places like Prince of Wales Island, deer are becoming harder to hunt due to loss of habitat from logging. Roads and harvest have impaired salmon habitat. The Roadless Rule prevents government road building and clearcutting roadless old growth forests in Southeast.
Removing these protections is driven by President Trump’s Executive Order to increase logging. People in southeast Alaska want a different way forward. The vast majority of locals' comments, and public testimony, supports Roadless protections and balanced management of these public lands. The Forest Service acknowledges the potential impacts in the Draft Environmental statement:
“In general, impacts from road construction and timber harvest activities could include: increased fire frequency (human-caused), reduction in primitive or semi-primitive recreational settings; sedimentation and impacts to water quality; landscape fragmentation; adverse impacts to threatened, endangered, or sensitive wildlife and plants; loss of scenic character; impacts to tribally important resources; or economic losses related to recreation or non-commodity values of roadless areas.”
Forest Service Roadless Repeal DEIS pg 22