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Our team has been diligently working to support healthy fish and wildlife habitat throughout the Tongass this year. As you likely heard, earlier this year the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced its new Southeast Alaska Sustainability Strategy, marking an end to more than seven decades of unsustainable and costly old-growth clear-cut logging on the Tongass. Stay tuned for an upcoming comment period from the USDA to reinstate the Roadless Rule on the Tongass! Until then, we need your help! We are collecting and curating content from our supporters to share on social media platforms throughout the coming months.
Southeast Alaska Community Leader Recognized for Outstanding Contributions to Fish Conservation5/19/2021
The Southeast Alaska Fish Habitat Partnership strives to support cooperative fish habitat conservation and management in Southeast Alaska. In the past, most fish habitat conservation and restoration efforts in the region have been conducted unilaterally by large government organizations such as the U.S. Forest Service or through small collaborative efforts with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working with agency partners. The Partnership brings people together to do more good work for the region’s fisheries. Trout Unlimited is a proud supporter of the Southeast Alaska Fish Habitat Partnership, and the critical role they play in bringing together local communities, governments, tribes, landowners, businesses, and non-profits throughout the region to help fish habitat. Debbie has played a key role in forming the partnership and facilitating some really fantastic programs under Debbie’s five years of leadership. SEAKFHP has successfully organized and helped fund projects throughout Southeast Alaska, organized film festivals, meetings, and highlighted aquatic conservation stories.
by Austin Williams, Trout Unlimited Alaska's Director of Law and Policy
My introduction to the Tongass was as a Forest Service employee on Prince of Wales Island—where industrial logging’s heyday was its most intense and most severe. I’ve slogged through more than my fair share of clear cuts—where logging stretched onto such steep slopes it caused landslides that caved into and smothered salmon spawning streams, where roads were constructed and maintained so haphazardly they diverted entire streams out of their natural channel, and where once-cut landscapes grew back with stunted trees so dense the forest was entirely uninhabitable for wildlife like deer. One memorable logging road I surveyed was so derelict it failed to have a single functioning culvert despite crossing numerous salmon streams. 
More than 96% of public comments on this proposed decision favored keeping the roadless rule in place. See Page 2. In some Alaska communities, every single comment submitted to the Forest Service wanted roadless areas protected. Tribes, small business owners, hunters and anglers, subsistence users, scientists, and people from all walks of life spoke up in favor of fish, wildlife, beautiful scenery, and for putting an end to unsustainable clear-cut logging of our best remaining old-growth forest. Recognizing how unpopular clear-cut logging of old-growth forest has become, some individuals have taken to claiming this decision isn’t about logging at all. Don’t buy what they’re selling. 
Video by Rafe Hanson
The Tongass National Forest is the largest national forest in the United States. Throughout the Tongass, there is one major theme: salmon.
From driving the jobs and industry in Southeast Alaska, to providing recreation opportunities for communities and travelers. The Tongass is America’s Salmon Forest. The watersheds that make up the Tongass are wild and their habitats are extremely valuable for these reasons. In order for them to continue to provide for the people of Alaska and its visitors, we need to conserve them for generations to come. In collaboration with Sitka-based artist, Rafe Hanson, this video offers a glimpse of the beauty and wildness that is America’s Salmon Forest.  We can all agree that the Tongass National Forest is America's Salmon Forest. Today, our friends at Sitka Conservation Society released "The Salmon Forest," a beautiful video celebrating one of the few places in the world where wild salmon and trout still thrive. When you're done watching the video, sign your name to help conserve our Salmon Forest. |
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AMERICA'S SALMON FORESTis a coalition of sport, commercial, and subsistence fishermen, business owners and operators as well as private citizens working together to conserve high-quality salmon and trout spawning and rearing habitat in the Tongass, America's largest national forest.
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