Great American Outdoors Act

The Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) passed in August, and we can’t be more excited about what that means for the public use areas we use and love in the Tongass National Forest! The Great American Outdoors Act permanently funds the Land and Water Conservation fund, meaning improving recreation areas, creating more jobs, and increasing protections for fish and wildlife areas. With more time spent cooped up indoors, and desperate for fresh air after endless Zoom meetings, there could be no better time to celebrate the projects that are coming our way!  ​

Atop the list of exciting projects in store for Alaska are trail, cabin and campground projects. These recreation infrastructure projects are all desperately needed on the Tongass. A sample of what’s included for National Forests in Alaska include: Yakutat Cabin Maintenance, Juneau Ranger District Strike Team, Pack Creek Trail Reconstruction and Thayer Lake Shelter Repairs, and the El Cap Recreation Area improvements.  

For Southeast Alaskans, marine access and transportation for guiding, fishing, hunting, subsistence, and getting to and from other communities is essential. GAOA funding will be used to address deferred maintenance issues on multiple docks and marine facilities, gangways, pads and piers throughout the Southeast Alaska region.  

As you know, an alarmingly large number of the culverts and bridges on the Tongass fail to meet applicable standards for fish passage. More than 30% of all instances where forest roads cross fish streams on the Tongass—1,120 instances in total--fail to meet applicable standards for fish migration and disturb fish access to nearly 250 miles of salmon and trout streams! Poorly maintained or degraded forest roads make travel difficult or dangerous, increase erosion and degrade nearby streams, block fish passage and migration, and are expensive to maintain.  This is one of the main reasons we are excited about road improvements being added to the priority with new GAOA funding.  

It’s no surprise that outdoor recreation and recreation access is on the rise and continues to be one of the most important public services provided by the Forest Service. We are excited about the variety of maintenance and infrastructure projects that are planned for the Tongass.