The next Amazon?<\/strong><\/p>\n“There’s been a lot of attention about what’s going on in Brazil right now, as the president of Brazil has lifted environmental protections for the tropical rainforest,” said DellaSala. “Are we headed for the same thing now? With our president wanting to open up vast tracts of roadless areas?”<\/p>\n
Massive fires in the Amazon captured international attention this summer, both for the vast scale of the human-initiated infernos and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s response to international uproar over his inaction as the rainforest burns, reducing its capability to generate fresh oxygen, and releasing millions of tons of carbon into the atmosphere, hastening climate change.<\/p>\n
The Tongass is unique, not just in its size, but the biodiversity of the region imparted by its old-growth status and the sheer amount of carbon tied up in the trees that will be released by logging.<\/p>\n
“The Tongass is exceptionally rare, as it’s holding on to 8 percent of all the carbon in the Lower 48 states,” DellaSala said. “It’s got a massive amount of carbon compared to the Lower 48.”<\/p>\n
Carbon is produced by burning fossil fuels, but also by burning or cutting down trees, said DellaSala. Conversely, it can be trapped in trees, which absorb it from the atmosphere and trap it in their trunks. Old-growth trees, which have been around for hundreds of years, are particularly impregnated with atmospheric carbon, removing it from the atmosphere and stabilizing the local climate.<\/p>\n
Much of the carbon is released by burning it, but even if the logs are cut down and left to rot, the carbon still returns to the atmosphere. This happens alarmingly often with old growth wood.<\/p>\n
“They can’t use 70 percent of the trees cut down because of defects. I was stunned about how much was left, how much is wasted,” DellaSala said. “We know the defect in young trees is about 1 percent. The kinds of trees they would be logging over a smaller footprint with less climate impact have 1 percent defect.”<\/p>\n
Defect means rot or other inconsistencies in the trees, making them useless as lumber. While old-growth trees can exhibit a defect rate as high as 70 percent, DellaSala said, younger trees grown on a rotating, sustainable model typically demonstrated less than a 1 percent defect rate.<\/p>\n
Economic viability<\/strong><\/p>\n“If you put in these roads and clear cut the forests, the tourism industry isn’t going to want to go here,” said Mary Catharine Martin, communications director with Salmon State, a nonprofit aimed at responsible fishing and ecological practices to ensure the long-term viability of Alaska’s fishing industry. “More than a million people a year don’t come to Southeast Alaska to see clearcuts.”<\/p>\n
Tourism and fishing bring in more than $2 billion a year for Alaska, Martin said.<\/p>\n
“The logging industry, if you look at the economy, is less than 1 percent of the economy,” said Jackson.<\/p>\n
The United States Forest Service, responsible for the administration of national forests, actually loses a significant amount of taxpayer money every year, Cannon said, bleeding more than $20 million per year for more than a decade attempting to maintain logging roads in the rough terrain.<\/p>\n
“There’s $68 million in backlogged maintenance on roads in the Tongass,” Cannon said. “It makes no sense to open up more roads.”<\/p>\n
This money, effectively constituting subsidies for the paltry timber industry here, should not be wasted hurting the only actually viable industries in the region, Martin said.<\/p>\n
“Responsible, selective, small scale timber harvest is one thing,” Martin said. “Rolling back the roadless rule to put roads across and clearcut 9 million acres of previously protected Tongass is quite another.”<\/p>\n
Not everyone agrees.<\/p>\n
“The vast vast majority of the Tongass is set aside and protected,” said Robert Venables, executive director of the Southeast Conference, an economic-development organization for Southeast Alaska, referring to the roughly 40 percent of the Tongass protected as wilderness. “Zero roads could be built tomorrow because it’s a public process.”<\/p>\n
Venables argued the Roadless Rule makes any economic development in the region wildly cost-inefficient, no matter what good it would do for the community. <\/p>\n
“It’s going to be a public process going forward. We should look at the facts,” said Venables. “What does the region need? Let’s work the process and help the region grow.”<\/p>\n
\n\u2022 Contact reporter Michael S. Lockett at 523-2271 or mlockett@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n