The U.S. Forest Service has announced changes to its Tongass Forest Plan, which the agency hopes will alleviate conflicts between the timber industry, recreational users and conservation groups.<\/p>\n
The amended plan calls for the transition from harvesting old growth trees to new growth over the next 15 years, more stable timber supplies for harvesting, further development of renewable energy projects and the improvement of fish and wildlife habitat.<\/p>\n
\u201cThrough years of collaborative efforts, the Tongass has sought a resolution to long-standing conflicts regarding timber management,\u201d said Earl Stewart, Tongass Forest Supervisor. \u201cThis amendment is the culmination of those collaborative efforts, and aligned with the unanimous recommendations of the Tongass Advisory Committee.\u201d<\/p>\n
The plan doesn\u2019t include changes to the Tongass Conservation Strategy, wilderness designations or modifying the 2001 Roadless Rule. The Roadless Rule prohibits road construction on 58.5 million acres of roadless areas on National Forest System lands, of which the Tongass is a part.<\/p>\n
According to one conservation group, the plan found the right balance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis plan amendment has the support of thousands of Alaskans that understand it\u2019s far past time we move beyond the conflict and controversy of timber management on the Tongass and recognize the great value our largest national forest provides for fishing and tourism,\u201d said Austin Williams of Trout Unlimited. \u201cThis is a huge step in the right direction for sustainable and economically-sensible management of the Tongass.\u201d<\/p>\n
But not all groups were happy with the amendments.<\/p>\n
Dominick DellaSala with the GEOS Institute based in Ashlande, Oregon, says the 15-year transition from old to new growth forests \u201cstalls urgent climate change protections.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the heels of news last March that global carbon dioxide levels exceeded the 400 parts per million mark, old-growth forests on the Tongass, the nation\u2019s most carbon dense forest, are being clearcut,\u201d said DellaSala, chief scientist with the institute\u2019s Forest Legacy Program, in a statement. \u201cThe Tongass absorbs about 8 percent of the nation\u2019s carbon dioxide pollution annually \u2014 far greater than any other national forest.\u201d<\/p>\n
The amendments were recommended by the 15-member Tongass Advisory Committee, which includes residents from Alaska and the west coast, and representatives from Native corporations, state and local government, the timber industry and environmentalists.<\/p>\n
The draft decision follows an extensive public process that included meetings throughout Southeast Alaska communities in early 2016. More than 165,000 comments were received on the plan\u2019s Draft Environmental Impact Statement, according to a Forest Service news release <\/p>\n
The publication of the draft decision and finalized EIS begins a 30-day public review period that starts Saturday. Also Saturday, a 60-day objection filing period will begin. Only those who submitted valid comments are eligible to object. Following review and written response to the objections, a final Record of Decision is expected in December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The U.S. Forest Service has announced changes to its Tongass Forest Plan, which the agency hopes will alleviate conflicts between the timber industry, recreational users and conservation groups. The amended plan calls for the transition from harvesting old growth trees to new growth over the next 15 years, more stable timber supplies for harvesting, further […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":23334,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-23333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23333"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=23333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}