America's Salmon Forest

Executives demand continued protections for Tongass National Forest

12/17/2019

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Austin Williams, Trout Unlimited, (907) 227-1590 or awilliams@tu.org

Business chiefs say Forest Service failed to recognize key values of Southeast Alaska National Forest in a joint letter.

JUNEAU, AK - In a direct and urgent call to maintain protections for fish and wildlife on the Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska, executives of some of Alaska’s and the nation’s best-known fishing and hunting outfitters and retailers sent a letter to U.S. Forest Service leaders on Monday urging the national Roadless Rule be kept in place on the Tongass.

“Our ability to fulfill our missions and meet the needs of our customers, and the Forest Service’s ability to meet the needs of the public, are directly tied to one another,” the heads of nearly 100 companies, including Orvis, Sage, First Lite and Simms, say in the letter. “Either we succeed as stewards of our public lands together with the Forest Service, or we standby as turmoil over management decisions grows and forest values are degraded.”

The letter, which urges the Forest Service to maintain the Roadless Rule on the Tongass, is a concerted effort by the business community to ensure the habitat that sustains their operations is protected, clarifying that decisions related to management of the Tongass have a direct and profound impact on their customers, members and the organizations themselves.

Addressed to Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, and Forest Service Chief, Vicki Christiansen, signers emphasized the economic strengths of fishing, tourism and outdoor recreation in Southeast Alaska. Together, these now account for 26 percent of regional employment and add $2 billion to the local economy. The letter clarifies that these attributes rely on world-class fish and wildlife, recreation values, subsistence resources within the forest.

“Roadless areas on the Tongass are some of the best and most valuable lands on the forest. Many of the most important salmon streams are in roadless areas. Increasingly scarce winter deer range and prime bear habitat is often found in low elevation roadless areas,” the groups, which also include Alaska-based businesses Coastal Alaska Adventures, Glacier Guides, UnCruise Adventures, Bear Creek Outfitters, and others wrote. “Roadless areas offer the right combination of beautiful scenery, wild landscapes, fish and wildlife, and access that our growing tourism and recreation industry demands.”

The public has through today to submit a public comment. According to the executives signed onto the letter, an American paradise hangs in the balance.

In addition to affected businesses, numerous tribes and communities in southeast Alaska have passed resolutions or spoken out in favor of protecting roadless areas on the Tongass. Public comment at meetings hosted by the Forest Service in Alaska and Washintgon, D.C. overwhelmingly favored retaining the Roadless Rule. In some communities, 100 percent of the public comment supports protecting roadless areas and the majority of public comments to the Forest Service during the scoping period opposed changing the 2001 Roadless Rule for Alaska.

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Businesses Support the Roadless Rule

12/17/2019

Taking care of the land that takes care of Southeast Alaska businesses is just common sense. More than 70 outfitters and guides, tour operators, gear manufacturers and retailers, sportsmen organizations, and conservation groups spoke up with this message today.

Trout Unlimited Alaska is very pleased to release the following letter calling on the Trump Administration and U.S. Forest Service to maintain the protections for the Tongass National Forest by maintaining the national Roadless Rule.

Fisheries, recreation and tourism account for 26% of jobs in Southeast Alaska. These signers want this number to continue to grow and recognize that healthy fisheries and intact habitat are needed to do so.

“Roadless areas offer the right combination of beautiful scenery, wild landscapes, fish and wildlife, and access that our growing tourism and recreation industry demands. The Roadless Rule’s protections for these unique values give our businesses and organizations a level of certainty upon which we base our business investments and hiring decisions,” said more than 70 businesses who signed onto the letter.

We thank these groups and organizations for speaking up for the Tongass and encourage everyone to follow their lead and submit a comment supporting continued protections on wildlife and recreation habitat before the end of day December 17th.

Submit Comment

If the Roadless Rule is revoked: what would come next?

11/4/2019

Bad news if you care about fish, wildlife and wild places: the president, governor and our members of Congress in Alaska support opening up 9 million acres of the Tongass National Forest to old-growth logging and road building by removing the Tongass from the Roadless Rule.

The situation gets even worse when one considers that if that exemption goes through and the Tongass no longer benefits from the conservation measure of the Roadless Rule, a new Tongass Land Management Plan would likely have to be created and the fish-and-wildlife-friendly “Tongass Transition” will be scrapped.

Let us back up to explain fully what this means for our fish and wildlife.

Thanks to thousands of comments from Southeast Alaskans and others who care about the forest, the Forest Service updated the Tongass Land Management Plan (TLMP) in 2016. The process was lengthy, expensive and sometimes contentious but the end-result was a Forest Plan that protected high value fish and wildlife habitat that accommodated logging and had widespread public support. This is where the aforementioned “transition” comes into play.

In 2010, the Forest Service announced it would reduce old growth timber harvest on the Tongass while increasing the harvest of second or young growth timber. This shift was coined the “Tongass Transition” and like the 2016 Forest Plan, it was the product of a great deal of public input and was broadly supported by folks in Southeast Alaska.

Essentially, the 2016 Forest Plan provided the terms for which the Transition would be implemented. So, for what was perhaps the very first time ever on the Tongass, we had commonly held goal (prioritizing fish and wildlife and the growth of their associated industries!) with a framework established for how to achieve it. Although no one flew a “Mission Accomplished” banner across the stern of an aircraft carrier, there was a general sense the infamous Tongass Timber Wars had finally come to an end.

Skip ahead 2 years. The Trump Administration accepted the State of Alaska’s petition to review the Roadless Rule in Alaska. Skip another year ahead where we’re now facing a potential full exemption from the Roadless Rule. More specifically, the administration has directed the Forest Service to list the complete removal of the Roadless Rule as the “preferred alternative” in the Draft environmental impact statement (EIS). If this moves ahead and the Roadless Rule is un-done on the Tongass, all the public process, consensus and tax-payer provided planning dollars would be flushed down the drain.

A full exemption from the Roadless Rule will require a new TLMP. All that time, energy and money that went into the 2016 Plan (including many of your comments) will have to expended yet again, just three short years later.

If the Transition to a sustainable young growth harvest regime isn’t scrapped altogether it will most certainly be extended to the point it will become meaningless—as long as politicians continue to clear the way for more old-growth harvest, Tongass timber operators will get in line for it. They have no motivation to change, adapt or innovate when they continue to get government hand-outs.

Governor Dunleavey began his time in Alaska as logger on the Tongass back in the 80’s, Senator Murkowski grew up in the region during heyday of clear-cutting old growth trees and mashing them into pulp.

However, the reality is, an exemption from the Roadless Rule will not create another single logging job on the Tongass. In fact, according to a cost-benefit analysis performed by the Congressional Budget Office, an exemption will only serve to reduce the amount of money outfitters and guides and tourism businesses stand to make each season.

All these political attempts to turn back the clock makes me nostalgic for 2016. The only way we get back to that is to defeat the proposed exemption to the Roadless Rule! Anyone can comment using our online form here. We encourage you to take a moment to customize your comment and explain why Roadless Areas on the Tongass (or Chugach) National Forest is important to you.

Comment Today

Nov. 4-14: check out the list of communities where the Forest Service will be holding meetings on the Roadless Rule. We encourage you to attend and ask questions.

Conserving Wild Places on the Tongass is Up to Us!

10/16/2019

The U.S. Forest Service has just announced their plan to exempt the Tongass National Forest from the national Roadless Rule.
The Roadless Rule has conserved key areas of the Tongass from industrial old-growth logging and supported habitat for salmon, trout and steelhead, provided recreational access for anglers, and advanced southeast Alaska’s $2 billion fishing and tourism industries. The proposed repeal of the Roadless Rule on the Tongass is a direct result of political and special interest decision-making aimed at reviving an outdated clear-cut logging industry that threatens key fish and wildlife resources in southeast Alaska. For a full refresher on the Roadless Rule and why it’s important to Southeast, click here.

Add your voice today: 
Tell the U.S. Forest Service that you want to see conservation measures remain in place for key-fish producing areas of the Tongass.

The Forest Service is asking the public to weigh in on its proposal to eliminate protections for roadless areas. This is your opportunity to tell the Forest Service that you value keeping our wildlife areas, wild salmon watersheds, and our fishing and tourism economies strong. Your input matters if you live in southeast Alaska, if you visit the Tongass, or even if you merely hope to visit someday!

While we have a simple, pre-written comment available for you online, personalized comments can be more effective.

Please take a few minutes to customize your comment at this link.

Below is an outline and key points for creating your own comment.

“Hello, my name is ___________ and I live in ____________.”
“I support keeping the Roadless Rule on the Tongass.”
Describe where you use the Tongass and why those places are so special.
Explain how you use the Tongass, such as for recreational fishing, commercial use, subsistence, hunting, camping, hiking, boating, primitive recreation, semi-primitive recreation, etc.
Please specifically mention the need to conserve key fish-producing areas of the forest, such as the Tongass 77. For example: “Protecting key wildlife areas and salmon watersheds such as the Tongass 77 is important for our economy and way of life in Southeast Alaska.”
Optional: add additional specific information regarding the importance of intact fish and wildlife habitat, the impacts of logging or roads, or the importance of the Roadless Rule to show why you support protecting roadless areas on the Tongass.

Some additional detail that may be helpful:

The Existing Roadless Rule

The Roadless Rule is working. It now conserves 58 million acres of fish and wildlife habitat, recreation areas, drinking- water resources and other lakes, rivers and streams across the National Forest system, which in turn protects our salmon and our tourism and recreation economy. The Rule protects more than 9 million acres on the Tongass, preventing the expansion of clear-cut logging of old-growth timber.
The Roadless Rule has already been through the public process. More than 1.6 million people commented during the rulemaking process in 2001, and 95% of them supported strong protections for roadless areas. Public comments in 2018 and 2019 have also overwhelmingly supported retaining the rule in Alaska.
The Roadless Rule struck the right balance by allowing energy, infrastructure and other development activities. All 58 applications for development activities in Tongass Roadless Areas, mainly associated with mineral exploration and hydropower development, have been granted. Approval generally takes just 1-3 weeks.

The Tongass

The Tongass is a national treasure. As our largest national forest and part of the largest remaining intact temperate rainforest in the world, the Tongass has a unique assemblage of plants, animals and fish found in vast and sustainable numbers. It is a place like no other.
The Tongass produces 80% of the salmon harvested on the National Forest system (about 50 million annually).
The Tongass hosts the highest density of nesting bald eagles and brown bear in the world.
More than 50 animal species feed on Tongass salmon when they return to spawn.

Tongass is a globally important carbon sink. The Tongass stores 8% of all the carbon stored in America’s forests and, in doing so, helps reduce the impacts of climate change.
The Roadless Rule protects fish and wildlife. The Tongass produces more salmon than all other National Forests, combined. Roadless areas and places like the Tongass 77 contain highly-productive fish habitat that is critical to local fishing and tourism industries, which combine to contribute more than $2 billion in economic activity and roughly 26% of jobs in the region, annually.

Roads

We don’t need more roads. The Tongass National Forest already has more than 5,000 miles of permanent logging roads transecting its landscape to access timber.
Road construction on the Tongass is expensive. American taxpayers have spent more than $600 million building logging roads on the Tongass over the past 20 years. According to the Taxpayers for Common Sense, USFS could end up losing more than $180 million in the Tongass over the next four years.
We can’t take care of the existing Tongass roads. Congressional sources pin the Tongass road maintenance backlog at roughly $68 million. The Forest Service estimates it has a backlog of more than $100 million in watershed restoration needs.
Roads are bad for fish. The Forest Service has surveyed 3,687 places where roads cross fish streams on the Tongass (culverts and bridges) and found 33% of them fail to meet standards to allow fish migration. That means there are more than 1,200 places on the Tongass where roads don’t allow fish to migrate past at all life stages! We applaud the Forest Service’s on-going efforts to fix these problems, but we never should have gotten here in the first place and we question the logic behind adding to the problem.

Customize Your Comment Today!

Proposed repeal of Roadless Rule on Tongass National Forest harmful to salmon, wildlife

10/15/2019

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Austin Williams, Trout Unlimited, (907) 227-1590

Proposed repeal of Roadless Rule on Tongass National Forest harmful to salmon, wildlife

Sportsmen react to roadless management proposal for Southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest released today by U.S. Forest Service

JUNEAU, AK - Today, the U.S. Forest Service announced it will release its draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for the Alaska Roadless Rule this week, with a preferred alternative to repeal long-standing protections for more than 9 million acres of Southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. The DEIS release will trigger a 60-day comment period where the public can weigh in on the agency’s proposal. Repealing the rule would make currently-protected lands available for expanded clear-cut logging of old-growth forest and construction of logging roads.

In response to the preferred alternative, Austin Williams, Trout Unlimited’s Alaska Legal and Policy Director, issued the following statement:

“The proposed repeal of the Roadless Rule caters to the outdated old-growth, clear-cut logging industry and shows blatant disregard for everyday Alaskans who rely on and enjoy salmon, wildlife, clean water, abundant subsistence resources, and beautiful natural scenery.

The Tongass is all of ours. Repealing the Roadless Rule would cast aside years of collaboration and thriving businesses that depend on healthy forests, and usher in a new era of reckless old-growth clear-cut logging that pollutes our streams, hurts our salmon and deer populations, and spoils the forest and scenery. This proposed rule is a complete about-face from the direction we should be headed and reflects the fact that special interests and not common sense are guiding this decision.

People throughout Alaska and the rest of the country depend on the productive rivers and wild fish of the Tongass for food, jobs, and recreation. We urge anyone who shares these values to comment to the Forest Service and urge them to uphold the Roadless Rule and conserve key areas of the Tongass, including the highest quality salmon-producing watersheds within the Tongass 77.”

The Tongass produces more salmon than all other national forests combined, and the fishing and tourism industry supported by the intact forest account for more than 25 percent of local jobs in the region. A statewide 2019 poll commissioned by Trout Unlimited found a majority of likely voters in Alaska opposed efforts to repeal the Roadless Rule and strongly supported efforts to protect salmon, the salmon industry, and high-value salmon streams in the Tongass such as those included in the Tongass 77.

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Trout Unlimited is the nation’s oldest and largest coldwater fisheries conservation organization. In Alaska, we work with sportsmen and women to ensure the state’s trout and salmon resources remain healthy far into the future through our local chapters and offices in Anchorage and Juneau. Follow TU’s Tongass efforts on Facebook and visit us online at tu.org. Learn more about our work to conserve key areas of the Tongass National Forest at americansalmonforest.org.

Comment to Preserve the Roadless Rule here

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Executives demand continued protections for Tongass National Forest

Businesses Support the Roadless Rule

If the Roadless Rule is revoked: what would come next?

Conserving Wild Places on the Tongass is Up to Us!

Proposed repeal of Roadless Rule on Tongass National Forest harmful to salmon, wildlife

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