Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced at the end of May an interim directive prohibiting new road construction and logging in roadless areas of national forests across America, unless he approves them himself.

Environmentalists cheered the one-year moratorium, which imposes a time-out on management of roadless areas. They continue to seek reinstatement of the Clinton-era roadless rule to stop new road construction and development in remote areas.

What does this mean for Southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest – ground zero for the big logging battles of the past 20 years?

According to environmentalists, Vilsack’s action will have the biggest and most immediate impact on the Tongass, the nation’s largest national forest. They claim critical sales scheduled for this summer in the forest, along with 35 miles of new roads to access timber, will be halted by the moratorium.

But according to our sources, the Obama administration has told the state the Secretary’s memorandum will not affect timber sales or other projects this summer in the Tongass and that the forest’s special exemption to the roadless rule will remain in place. Let’s hope that is
truly the case.

Opponents of the forest products industry would like nothing more than to see the Tongass exemption ended and the Clinton rule put back in place across the entire nation. In advocating for the roadless rule, Rep. Nick Rahall, (D-W-Va), said “wild forests need
permanent protection to continue providing clean water, wildlife habitat and boundless recreational opportunities.”

Yet Rahall’s goals already have been largely accomplished in the Tongass, thanks to increasingly restrictive management plans that have placed most of the forest off-limits to development. Moreover, unlike other national forests, the Tongass is primarily roadless and
will remain that way. These important distinctions and others are why the Alaska forest was given an exemption to the roadless rule. Consider these additional facts:

• Since 1907, only a little over 400,000 acres have been logged in the 16.7 million acre forest. Under the most recent Tongass management plan, only 6.5 percent of commercial-grade old-growth acreage will be harvested between now and 2108.
• Two-hundred years from now, at least 83 percent of the current old-growth will still remain intact in the Tongass.
• While the forest plan leaves 2.4 million acres in backcountry areas open to logging, only about 663,000 acres would actually be scheduled for harvesting over the next 100 years, and half of that acreage is second-growth timber cut decades ago. The 663,000 acres represents only 12 percent of the commercial timberlands.

Most of the Tongass remains closed to logging with development activities strictly regulated to ensure clean water, protection of wildlife habitat and vast wilderness recreational opportunities.

The latest forest plan reduced the annual harvest ceiling to only 267 million board feet (mmbf), compared to 520 mmbf set under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. And harvest levels today are nowhere near the current smaller allowable annual cut – with only 30 mmbf harvested in 2008, matching the all-time low harvest in 2007. Timber harvests are likely to be severely constrained again in 2009, due to ongoing litigation.

If the Secretary’s directive were to apply to the Tongass and future sales were cancelled in roadless areas, the Forest Service would be hard pressed to sustain sufficient timber for even a single sawmill. The Forest Service has estimated it can only sustain about 50 mmbf
of timber supply annually in the roaded areas of the forest. Yet given how the agency has set up recent timber sales, only a small portion of that 50 mmbf may be economically feasible to harvest.

Over the past 20 years, the forest products industry in Southeast Alaska has been in sharp decline. Political and economic pressures, increased federal land withdrawals, a more stringent regulatory climate and environmental lawsuits forced the closure of Southeast
Alaska’s two pulp mills. With new forest plans sharply reducing timber harvests, the industry is now a mere fraction of its original size and local family-owned sawmills are struggling to survive.

In contrast, Rahall’s West Virginia has a robust timber economy outputting more than 700 million board feet of lumber annually from 75 billion board feet of timber inventory. With 15,600 employees (compared to 600 in Alaska), the industry is West Virginia’s third
largest manufacturer employer. Yet Rahall’s strong support for the roadless rule and its full application to the Tongass would deny Alaskans a thriving forest products industry, which his state enjoys.

Meanwhile, Secretary Vilsack says his new interim directive will provide consistency and clarity that will help protect national forests until a long-term roadless policy reflecting President Obama’s commitment is developed. During the presidential campaign, Obama
expressed support for the roadless rule, which granted blanket protection to 58 million acres of federal land nationwide, but has been mired in legal challenges ever since President Clinton put it in place just before leaving office.

The courts in recent years simultaneously upheld and overturned the 2001 rule, creating conflicting decisions, leaving the Forest Service a difficult choice over which of the court orders to disobey. Environmentalists are pressing the administration to begin defending
the roadless rule in court as lawsuits on the issue continue through
the appeals process.

There’s good reason the Tongass was exempted from the roadless rule and we are hopeful the Obama administration will continue to recognize the extensive protections in place, looking beyond the rhetoric of those who appear committed to the complete destruction
of Southeast Alaska’s fledgling forest products industry.

For the sake of Southeast Alaska communities, family-operated sawmills and the President Roosevelt mandate that national forests be managed for multiple uses, including timber harvesting, the Obama administration needs to continue to exempt the Tongass from the
roadless rule and the interim directive. Politics aside, the facts clearly support the exemption. It’s the right thing for the administration to do.

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