Tribes, municipalities, conservation groups stand together in support of protections for vital Southeast Alaska rainforest
JUNEAU (ÁAKʼW ḴWÁAN TERRITORY) — The US Department of Agriculture announced the release of its Notice of Intent to rescind the Roadless Area Conservation Rule nationwide, including on the Tongass National Forest, initiating a condensed public process with a comment period starting Friday, August 29. Comments must be received by September 19.
A diverse group of Tribes, municipalities, small businesses and conservation organizations has come together to fight to uphold Roadless Rule protections for the Tongass National Forest and to preserve their ways of life and livelihoods.
Rescinding the Roadless Rule from the Tongass would add almost 190,000 acres to an inventory of lands ‘suitable’ for timber production. These lands are essential habitat for wildlife, birds and fish and valued subsistence and recreational harvesting grounds; they store 20 percent of the carbon within US national forests; they’re popular for recreation and support thriving industries like commercial fishing and tourism; and they hold deep spiritual and cultural meaning to many.
When the previous Trump administration tried to roll back Roadless protections on the Tongass, the public submitted 1.6 million comments comments; 96 percent of those comments were in favor of keeping Roadless protections in place.
In advance of shortened public engagement windows, communities are already voicing support for the Roadless Rule, with several Tribes and municipalities adopting resolutions and a number of small Southeast Alaska-based businesses signing onto a letter in support of the popular protections.
Statements in response to the NOI and public process
“Across Southeast Alaska, we see the irreparable damage from so many decades of unsustainable clear-cut logging in the scarred landscapes and decimated fish and wildlife habitats — we cannot and will not go back to that, and we know that’s what public comment will show once again,” said Maggie Rabb, Executive Director of the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council. “Rescission of the Roadless Rule on the Tongass provides economic benefit to one exceedingly small sector of Alaska’s economy at the expense of thriving industries like tourism and fishing, not to mention the immeasurable impacts on Southeast Alaska communities who rely on the Tongass for so much more than a paycheck.”
“Rescinding the Roadless Rule will devastate our community just as we are beginning to heal from clear-cut logging of the past. It’s clear the people making these decisions in Washington, D.C., don’t care about how it will harm those of us who live here and have lived here for thousands of years,” said President Joel Jackson, Organized Village of Kake. “We are the people of the forest and salmon people — our lives and our voices should count — this process makes it clear they won’t.”
“Our Tribe and our community wish to see the Roadless Rule upheld. These protections on the Tongass National Forest have allowed for continuing customary and traditional uses of our lands and waters, fish, wildlife, trees and plants,” said Mike Jones, President, Organized Village of Kasaan. “We are disappointed to see a public engagement process that seems designed to exclude our community’s voices, and we have no confidence in the Tribal consultation process for this rulemaking. Once again, it seems the US Government will exploit our home against our will and best interests.”
“We, the people of Kichxáan, are the Tongass. You cannot separate us from the land. We depend on Congress to update the outdated and predatory, antiquated laws that allow other countries and outside sources to extract our resource wealth. This is an attack on Tribes and our people who depend on the land to eat,” said Gloria Burns, President, Ketchikan Indian Community. “The federal government must act and provide us the safeguards we need or leave our home roadless. We are not willing to risk the destruction of our homelands when no effort has been made to ensure our future is the one our ancestors envisioned for us. Without our lungs — the Tongass — we cannot breathe life into our future generations.”
“We’re disappointed to see the Trump administration moving forward with this recission, and with such a short comment period,” said Earthjustice Attorney Kate Glover. “We know the vast majority of the public recognizes the value of intact forests for protecting indigenous ways of life, healthy watersheds, and salmon streams, and defending against climate change – and we hope the administration will be able to hear those voices and collect the best available scientific information. The Roadless Rule has been working well for the Tongass and remains one of the best tools to ensure the forest remains standing for everyone’s benefit.”
“Over 240 miles of salmon streams are still blocked by failed culverts from past roadbuilding,” said Linda Behnken, Director of Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association. “That damage annually cost salmon fishermen $2.5 million in forgone harvest. The roadless rule protects the salmon and everyone who depends on salmon for sustenance or livelihood.”
“Rescinding the 2001 Roadless Rule is an act of violence to the Indigenous peoples who have always called the Tongass Forest home eons before recorded time,” said Wanda Culp, Tlingit activist and Tongass Forest Coordinator for the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN). “The wild Tongass Forest is the foundation of our sovereign cultural way of life, the Forest is a sanctuary, our economy arose from this convoluted land not capable of big ‘agriculture’. Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian tribes thrive here. The political re-repealing of the Roadless Rule today is intended to proceed destructive industrial clearcut logging and mining on US public-owned land. As the original stewards of this region, we say ‘no to more taking’ by big business from public coffers. We can continue to rise in action for a healthy environment of clean air and water for all the Life who call the Tongass Forest home. No more political puppetry. Make the Roadless Rule a law now!”
“As the climate crisis escalates with deadly flooding, heat, and fires, the last thing we need to do is destroy old-growth trees in the Tongass Rainforest — one of the best defenses in mitigating climate disruption in the United States. Moving forward with the rescission of the Roadless Rule in the Tongass will only serve to accelerate climate chaos, violate Indigenous rights and sovereignty, harm local economies, and devastate vital ecosystems,” said Osprey Orielle Lake, Executive Director of the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN). “Over many years, the public has expressed overwhelming support for the Roadless Rule, and we must guarantee robust and participatory environmental procedures. We don’t want this process railroaded through.”
“Slicing up the Tongass through new road building will compromise the forest, put fish and other wildlife at risk, and allow the logging of trees older than the United States. Roadless national forests are an incredible place to hunt, fish, hike, and for wildlife to live at least in part because it takes effort to get deep into them,” said Dyani Chapman, Alaska Environment Research & Policy Center State Director. “There are forests that shouldn’t be logged and places where roads shouldn’t be built. The Roadless Rule is a successful conservation tool, and it should stay in place.”
“The Roadless Rule prohibits bulldozing over American treasures like the Tongass for commercial logging and roadbuilding, and rescinding this rule will come at great ecological and taxpayer expense,” said Nicole Whittington-Evans, senior director of Alaska and Northwest programs at Defenders of Wildlife. “This scam is cloaked in efficiency and necessity, but in reality it will liquidate precious old-growth forest lands critical to Alaska Natives, local communities, tourists and countless wildlife, who all depend on intact habitat for subsistence harvesting, recreation and shelter. Rare and ancient trees will be shipped off at a loss to taxpayers, meaning that Americans will subsidize the destruction of our own natural heritage.”
“Trump’s reckless attack on the Tongass will devastate biodiversity in this spectacular forest and speed up climate change,” said Marlee Goska, an Alaska-based attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “These forests are some of the world’s most important carbon sinks and they’re a lifeline for our rapidly heating world. The Tongass provides irreplaceable habitat for wildlife like Queen Charlotte goshawks and all five species of Pacific salmon. Opening the door to roads and old-growth logging here is another shameful example of the Trump administration putting short-term industry profits over a livable planet for future generations.”
###
Background
The Tongass National Forest is the country’s largest National Forest and the world’s largest intact temperate rainforest, spanning about 500 miles of the Southeast Alaska panhandle. It has been home to the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian peoples for more than 10,000 years.
First promulgated in 2001, the Roadless Rule protects nearly 58 million acres of forestland across the country — among them more than 9 million acres of the roughly 17 million-acre Tongass National Forest — from roadbuilding and large-scale industrial logging, preserving some of the last intact stands of mature and old growth trees following decades of clear-cut logging.
Since then, the Tongass has been subject to round after round of Roadless Rule removal and reinstatement, with past public processes recording overwhelming support for the protections.
