America's Salmon Forest

Public Lands Seige

8/30/2019

While we would much prefer to be working on stream restoration projects, supporting sound fish management practices, and highlighting Alaska’s great fish resources, unfortunately, we’re seeing several attacks to Public Lands in the Tongass that need our attention. With the development agenda of our Governor, President, and U.S. Senators in play, that kind of work will have to take a backseat to speaking up to uphold past conservation gains and minimize future losses of fish and wildlife habitat and public lands access on the Tongass.

Alan Corbett

“Logging, as currently practiced and planned in southeast Alaska, has the potential to significantly and permanently alter large amounts of wildlife habitat. Wildlife species which are adapted to use existing habitat my decline and associated recreational and subsistence uses may be substantially reduced.”

- Alaska Department of Fish and Game

Brandon Hill

Any one of the current issues below would be significant individually, but taken together, you can see there’s no hyperbole behind us saying that public lands on the Tongass are under attack like no other time since the pulp mill days. We need your voice now more than ever to protect our Forest against these threats.

Repeal of the Roadless Rule – This would allow greatly expanded logging and construction of new logging roads on 9.5 million acres of the forest. The proposed rule is likely to come out soon we we’ve started collecting public comments here. To learn more about the Roadless Rule, check out previous blog posts here.

Prince of Wales Timber Sale – The Forest Service issued its final decision to authorize 235 million board-feet (mmbf) of old-growth logging and 421 mmbf of young-growth logging over a 15-year period. This is the largest timber sale on the Tongass in decades. Logging activities, which are harmful for fish and wildlife habitat, will occur on Prince of Wales and the surrounding islands.

Central Tongass Timber Sale – The Forest Service is proposing to authorize 150 mmbf of old-growth logging and 80 mmbf young-growth logging over a 15-year period. Logging would occur in the areas surrounding Wrangell, Kake, and Petersburg. Click here to learn more and comment.

Karst Amendment – Public comment just closed on a proposal to expand young-growth logging into new areas with sensitive limestone geology, referred to as “moderate-vulnerability karst” areas. If you’ve never heard of Karst, the gist of it is that it produces big trees and productive fish streams. This measure would allow new young-growth logging on more than 1,100 acres on Prince of Wales Island, among other areas on the forest. The Forest Service plans to finalize the amendment this fall.

South Revillagigedo Timber Sale – Proposes logging 5,500 acres of old-growth forest and 1,000 acres of young-growth forest near Ketchikan. The public comment period will open later this year.

Legislation to privatize new sections of the Tongass – New legislation is likely to be introduced in U.S. Congress any day that could have huge consequences for public lands in Alaska. Prior versions of the bill would have created 5 new Native corporations and privatized 115,200 acres from the Tongass. Privatizing public lands removes access, conservation measures that protect fish, wildlife and trees, as well as opening the door to development that can negatively impact adjacent public lands.

Here are a few things you can do to help. We have tried to make them as easy and painless as possible for you:

Comment on the actions above individually using the links provided above.
Write and submit personal comments on the Roadless Rule using the portal.
Spread the word on any of the issues you think your friends may also be concerned about.
Let us know if you have any questions about these action items, or how you can personally get involved. We are always happy to speak with you.

Tongass Roadless Rule 101

7/30/2019

The Forest Service is reconsidering the national Roadless Rule on Southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. Changing or removing this rule would have BIG implications for the health of our home forest and pocketbooks as American taxpayers. As we anticipate an opportunity for the public to weigh in on this decision, we wanted to lay out some facts about why the rule matters, and what’s at stake.

Alan Corbett

What is the Roadles Rule? The rule, created almost 20 years ago, keeps wild landscapes intact by prohibiting commercial logging and logging roads in undeveloped areas. In doing so, it saves taxpayers money and it preserves drinking water, fish and wildlife habitat and recreation areas.

But it’s not REALLY roadless. The Rule was set up in a reasonable way. This means people seeking to do mineral exploration, personal use logging, or develop a renewable energy project can request an exemption to the rule. This has happened 58 times in the Tongass, and the Forest Service has granted 100% of those requests, all within a matter of weeks.

How’d it come about? Through a lot of compromise and public input. More than 1.6 million Americans weighed in to create the rule with 95% of them supporting it.

We don’t need more roads. There are already more than 5,000 miles of permanent logging roads crisscrossing the Tongass that give timber harvesters access to a great deal of timber. Existing roads have created a massive backlog of needed maintenance that adds to the millions taxpayers spend each year subsidizing logging on the Tongass. Many logging roads also don’t meet standards set to protect fish, and need updates. It does not make sense to ask taxpayers to fund new roads, especially in a place like the Tongass where new road building is very expensive. And it definitely does not make sense in places within the forest that have been identified as most important for fish and wildlife, like in the Tongass 77.

The timber industry says different. As management of the Tongass has smartly moved toward more sustainable industries like fishing and tourism, logging simply no longer plays a major role in the economy of Southeast. In fact, it currently creates less than 1% of jobs in the region. The truth is, when they do log the Tongass nowadays, timber companies increasingly send the logs overseas and skip the whole “local mill jobs” step altogether. Still, U.S. taxpayers subsidize what’s left of the “industry” massively, spending approximately $26 million each year while yielding just $1.3 million in return.

Brandon Hill

Tongass trees are worth more standing. Aside from being a wild salmon-producing powerhouse and drawing tourists from around the world, Tongass’ trees buffer the impacts of climate change by storing significant amounts of pollutants.

Roads are bad for fish. The Forest Service has surveyed 3,687 road crossings on fish streams and found that a third of them don’t allow fish to pass at all their life stages! Roads also result in erosion which can smother eggs and juvenile fish.
Moreover, adding roads in key areas on the Forest such as Tongass 77 or TNC/Audubon areas, which are proven to be most important for fish and wildlife, would be especially detrimental for the economy and future of the Forest.

Brandon Hill

An intact forest fuels the economy of Southeast. Southeast Alaska’s industries are driven by fishing and tourism. More than 1 million out-of-state visitors come to the Tongass each year. They don’t come to see a post-logging stump wasteland. They come to fish and hunt, and for green, mountainous hillsides jutting straight up from the Pacific in one of the world’s few remaining temperate rainforests. The fishing and tourism industries make up more than 25% of all jobs in the region.

That means when we conserve fish and wildlife habitat by keeping key areas of the Tongass road-free, we also protect our economy and way of life.

Check back soon! Once the comment period for the Tonass Roadless Rule begins, we hope you’ll join us in telling the Forest Service not to roll back Roadless Rule protections on the Tongass, and to ensure important fish and wildlife areas like the Tongass 77 are protected.

Press Release: New statewide poll shows Alaska voters support conserving critical salmon streams, roadless areas on the Tongass National Forest

6/13/2019

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Austin Williams, Trout Unlimited Alaska, (907) 227-1590; Kiel Brunner, Tulchin Research, (415) 608-2851

New statewide poll shows Alaska voters support conserving critical salmon streams, roadless areas on the Tongass National Forest

JUNEAU, AK – According to the results of a new poll commissioned by Trout Unlimited Alaska, a majority of likely voters in Alaska support the Roadless Rule, which conserves undeveloped lands in our National Forests. Overwhelmingly, voters support efforts to protect salmon, the salmon industry, and high-value salmon streams in the Tongass such as those included in the Tongass 77.

As the State of Alaska pushes to eliminate the Roadless Rule on the Tongass and the U.S. Forest Service contemplates an Alaska-specific rule, the poll shows 57 percent of Alaskans, and 60 percent in Southeast Alaskans, support keeping the Roadless Rule in place. When given the option, 79 percent of Alaskans (and the same percentage of Southeast Alaskans) prefer either keeping the Roadless Rule in place without change or making limited changes that include new protections for important fish and wildlife areas. Only 11 percent of statewide voters and 17 percent of Southeast Alaska voters prefer a full exemption from the Roadless Rule for the Tongass National Forest.

The Roadless Rule limits new commercial logging and construction of new logging roads, which helps sustain salmon and wildlife habitat across the region. The rule does not preclude all development activities. It allows for forest health projects, harvesting trees for personal use, transportation highways and other development activities. The Forest Service has approved all 58 applications submitted to it for projects in roadless areas, the majority of which pertain to surface exploration of potential mining and hydropower projects. Additionally, the Forest Service has a $68 million backlog of road maintenance in Alaska. (source) Yet, Alaska Governor Dunleavy continues to press the Forest Service for a full exemption from the rule.

“Alaska has the world’s largest, healthiest, and most abundant wild salmon populations, which play a critical role in providing food, jobs, and income through commercial, subsistence and recreational fishing. The results of this poll demonstrate that Alaskans support conserving high-value salmon streams like the Tongass 77 and want the Roadless Rule left in place,” said Austin Williams, Alaska law and policy director for Trout Unlimited. “Exempting the Tongass from the Roadless Rule would be out of step with the views of 79 percent of Alaskans.”

This poll is the latest in years of findings demonstrating a consistent desire among Alaskans to conserve the state’s unique wild salmon and salmon-based industries.

Additional findings from the poll include

Tulchin Research conducted the poll among 400 likely voters statewide in Alaska and 172 likely voters in Southeast Alaska using live professional interviewers calling both landlines and cell phones as well as collecting data online through e-mails from the voter file. The margin of error for the statewide survey is +/- 4.9 percent and for Southeast Alaska is +/- 7.46 percent.

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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 onFacebook, and visit us online at tu.org. Learn more about our work to conserve key areas of the Tongass National Forest at www.americansalmonforest.org

Introducing Kayla Roys to the TU Alaska Team!

5/6/2019

Trout Unlimited’s Alaska Team welcomed Kayla Roys to work on our Tongass National Forest and transboundary campaigns. Since you may be hearing from her, we asked Kayla to introduce herself. Join us in welcoming Kayla!

Hey all! My name is Kayla Roys, and I joined the Trout Unlimited team in March of this year. I grew up in a rather fishy family and was lucky enough to spend most of my childhood outdoors experiencing all that the Tongass National Forest has to offer. From flying out to remote lakes, to summiting mountains in my backyard, I am a southeast girl through and through.

Southeast Alaska is made up of beautiful landscapes that draw in new comers. From mountain streams to saltwater flats, the fishing that Southeast provides is dynamic, within 15 minutes from our front doors, and always better than a day spent at home. We will deal with the heavy rain of fall and the abuse of winter for the long days of summer spent enjoying the outdoors.

Growing up in the Tongass, I found that people connect with one another in a different way than that of a big city; we connect outdoors. In the spring, we emerge from our winter hibernation, and flock together, connections forged by going on hiking, biking, camping and fishing trips. The shared passion of what we do for ourselves and connects us to one another and our environment more than our day jobs ever will.

That being said, I learned at a young age how important the lush forests, wild salmon runs, and clean water are to the Southeast Alaska region and its communities. For me, the importance of a healthy forest is through recreation. I spend my summers connecting with my friends and family on the water. From chasing the illusive southeast Alaska unicorn steelhead in small creeks, to bombing casts in the estuaries to king and silver salmon with my dad. The best memories I have are of dodging between log jams, tromping through muskegs, listening to fly line peel off my reel, and the smell of a campfire on my clothing. For others, the importance of a healthy forest is for harvesting seafood for their families, commercial fishing, guiding tourists, or the many other jobs that depend on the Tongass remaining healthy and wild.

This love for salmon and the outdoors is what drives my work for America’s Salmon Forest. Some of the oldest trees and the largest salmon runs in North America come from the Tongass. It is unthinkable to me that massive open-pit mines are under development in the headwaters of Southeast Alaska’s most important salmon rivers. Or that the Tongass could be open to commercial logging, which could impact recreation, hunting, and fishing, and our entire economy. Now is the time to do everything we can to defend our salmon rivers and forests for sustainable jobs for our region, and future generations to enjoy, just the way I have.

I am looking forward to working with you on behalf of the place we all love and many of us call home. Give me a call or send me an email any time with ideas for this work - or just to say hi.

Sincerely,

Kayla
907.957.6841
Kayla.Roys@TU.org

Cruise the Tongass for Conservation

4/2/2019

Spring is coming early in Alaska this year. The sun is out (most days), the snow is quickly melting, and our nearby streams are starting to gain flow. Before long, the first salmon will arrive and the annual summer frenzy will be at full steam. For those hearty enough that know where to go, some streams already hold early season steelhead.

It’s easy to become complacent and take for granted these seasonal and annual cycles, but doing so is a trap that we must always guard against. As declining salmon populations across too much of their historic range demonstrate, nothing is guaranteed.

One of the more rewarding aspects of working for TU is getting to know and work with our dedicated network of members and business supporters. There is no more passionate or selfless group out there, which is one of the keys to our many successes over the years. Sure, at some basic level we all just love fishing. But, what sets TU members apart is that we also understand that our relationship with the land, waters and fish we hold so dear imparts an obligation that we give back and take care of the resource.

Photo Courtesy of Custom Alaska Cruises.

In recognition of this obligation to give back, one of our long-time partners in Southeast Alaska, Custom Alaska Cruises, is donating 10 percent of its booking through May 1, 2019, to TU in support of our work in Southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. If you’ve ever dreamed of plying the inside passage and its many fjords, glaciers, forests and streams, this is a unique opportunity to do so aboard one of Custom Alaska Cruises’ luxury vessels while ensuring a portion of the costs directly support some of the best remaining salmon and steelhead runs in the world.

The Tongass National Forest holds more than 5,000 individual salmon streams, hundreds of healthy wild steelhead runs, and abundant Dolly Varden and coastal cutthroat trout populations. Black and brown bear, Sitka black-tailed deer and bald eagles are among the more common species that call the vast tracts of wild lands within the Tongass home.

For more information and to book your trip to the Tongass with Custom Alaska Cruises, you can contact Chelsea McCarthy by email at AlaskaCruises@gmail.com or by phone at (970)217-6359. For more information on our work in the Tongass check out http://www.americansalmonforest.org.

Photo Courtesy of Custom Alaska Cruises.

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Public Lands Seige

Tongass Roadless Rule 101

Press Release: New statewide poll shows Alaska voters support conserving critical salmon streams, roadless areas on the Tongass National Forest

Introducing Kayla Roys to the TU Alaska Team!

Cruise the Tongass for Conservation

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