In late October, President Trump ordered a reversal of the long-standing limits to tree logging in the Tongass, the largest national forest in the U.S. By lifting the limits of logging the 2001 Roadless Rule establishes, the Trump administration plans to expand the logging industry in the local area.
Under former President Clinton’s administration, the 2001 Roadless Rule was established to prohibiting road construction and timber harvesting on the 58.5 million acres of inventoried roadless conservation areas on the National Forest System lands. The main purpose of the legislation was to provide a lasting protection for inventoried roadless areas within the National Forest System.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Tongass National Forest is the nation’s largest national forest spanning 500 miles in Southeast Alaska. This lush forest houses approximately 70,000 people and over 32 communities, including Alaska’s capital, Juneau. It has been the home to many Native Alaskans for more than 10,000 years.
On Oct. 15, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service posted a statement in which they asked the public to comment on a draft environmental impact statement, which offered a range of alternatives for roadless management and a proposed Alaska Roadless Rule. The alternatives range from exempting the entire Tongass National Forest from the 2001 Roadless Rule to taking no action and leaving all of Alaska under the 2001 Roadless Rule.
A final decision about the alternatives is planned to be made in 2020. Until midnight on Dec. 17, 2019, the public can submit comments on the documents, which are posted in the Federal Register and on the agency’s Alaska Roadless Rule website.
Out of all the alternatives, legislators currently prefer Alternative 6 the most, which would remove all 9.2 million acres of inventoried roadless acres and convert 165,000 old-growth acres and 20,000 young growth acres previously identified as unsuitable timber lands to suitable timber lands.
Environmentally, the topic of climate change arises, with the question of whether the logging of more than half of the Tongass will cause harm to the planet. “Climate change is the overall largest scale shift in climatic patterns all across the world,” Marshall High School environmental science teacher Andrew Litterst said. “Speaking generally, anytime you start logging a national or protected area, those forests are protected for a reason, whether is be a cultural or educational thing they are preserving.”
“As we dump more and more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every single year, we need those trees to absorb that CO2 and to start reducing the impacts of anthropogenic climate change,” Mr. Litterst said.
According to NOAA, the global average atmospheric carbon dioxide level in 2018 was 407.4 parts per million (ppm), the highest in the past 800,000 years. In addition, it is predicted that carbon dioxide levels will continue to rise at a growth rate of 2.3 ppm per year, which is about a hundred times faster than past natural increases.
“Many adults don’t care enough to prevent logging in the Tongass or the destruction of any other natural resource because they won’t be around to see the worst effects of the climate crisis. So it’s really up to young people to rally together and stand up against people who are destroying the planet,” Richard Montgomery sophomore Eleanor Clemans-Cope says, “Kids in Alaska have a lawsuit going on now, and they’re arguing that under Alaska’s Constitution, the climate and environment are a public trust resource help for the people.”
Looking at the future, Mr. Litterst says, “If we keep dumping CO2 into the air, and we cut down the trees that absorb the Co2, we are only escalating the problems.”
Article by Sarasi Gunasekara of Richard Montgomery High School
Graphic by Angelina Guhl of Richard Montgomery High School