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How We're Going to Get There
SEACC has set its sights on some major goals:
- lasting protections for the biological heart of the forest,
- restoration of fish and wildlife habitat
- responsible logging that is appropriately scaled to the forest.
Eighty percent of Southeast Alaska is within the Tongass National Forest. These lands belong to all Americans.
Congress can and has played an important role in determining the fate of the forest, and any lasting solution will have to go through Congress. In today's political climate, any successful proposal will also have to balance the needs of diverse interests who depend on the forest in order to gain the support necessary to pass. Such proposals will certainly still be controversial to those seeking to only solve their own concerns.
With a goal so ambitious - protecting up to 4.6 million acres of the best of the Tongass - we know we can't risk going it alone. That's why we are partnering with other local and national conservation organizations, and perhaps more importantly, engaging in dialog with a diverse array of people including timber operators and regional corporations who have traditionally been on the other side of these issues.
Through forums like the Tongass Futures Roundtable and on-the-ground projects like the Hoonah Community Forest Project we found our interests aren't as disparate as many once thought.
We still have significant concerns about current proposals like the Sealaska's big ask legislation and specific timber sales. However, we believe that if we can settle these disputes by working with each other locally, we can all achieve organizational goals in the long run, whether that is conserving valuable wildlands, providing certainty for the remaining timber industry, or finalizing Native land entitlements.