DeLauro Leads 60 Members of Congress Urging Secretary Vilsack to Halt Tongass National Forest Logging Sale
WASHINGTON, DC—Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) led 60 of her colleagues in urging U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to halt a massive logging sale scheduled to occur in the Tongass National Forest. DeLauro led a similar letter last year.
“We are deeply troubled by the Forest Service’s plan to move forward with the controversial Big Thorne timber sale, which is the largest old-growth sale on the Tongass in more than two decades and proposes to cut down nearly 150 million board-feet of timber, including 116 million board-feet from roughly 6,200 acres of old-growth forest,” they wrote to Secretary Vilsack. “It represents a giant step backward for the Tongass and fundamentally is contrary to a real, rapid, and meaningful transition. We urge you to halt the Big Thorne sale and move forward with a meaningful transition.”
Tongass National Forest, located in Southeast Alaska, is the country’s largest national forest. Seventy percent of the salmon coming from America’s national forest system originates here, and the Forest hosts more than a million out-of-state visitors annually. Tourism and fisheries collectively are the largest source of employment in southeast Alaska, contributing 17,500 jobs and $2 billion to the economy.
The letter follows in its entirety:
The Honorable Thomas Vilsack
Secretary of Agriculture
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, DC 20250
Dear Secretary Vilsack,
Thank you for your ongoing efforts to promote a rapid transition out of large-scale old growth logging on the Tongass. We were glad to see the recent May 27, 2014, notice of intent to amend the Tongass National Forest Plan but encourage you to end industrial-scale old growth logging on our nation’s largest national forest much more expediently than the notice’s proposed 10-15 year timeline. We ultimately hope the forest plan amendment will rapidly and successfully pave the way for the U.S. Forest Service to refocus its resources and management of the Tongass toward projects that protect and restore vital watersheds and important fish and wildlife habitat while promoting a diverse and sustainable economy in Southeast Alaska based on fishing, tourism, recreation, and sustainable, value-added young-growth forest products.
While we support efforts to amend the forest plan to end industrial-scale old growth logging, we also write to express our serious concern about the rate of progress toward a meaningful transition and the Forest Service’s continued commitment to large-scale old-growth timber sales on the Tongass. In particular, we are deeply troubled by the Forest Service’s plan to move forward with the controversial Big Thorne timber sale, which is the largest old-growth sale on the Tongass in more than two decades and proposes to cut down nearly 150 million board-feet of timber, including 116 million board-feet from roughly 6,200 acres of old-growth forest. It represents a giant step backward for the Tongass and fundamentally is contrary to a real, rapid, and meaningful transition. We urge you to halt the Big Thorne sale and move forward with a meaningful transition.
The Big Thorne sale will destroy some of the last remaining old-growth temperate rainforest in the world, permanently reduce forest diversity, degrade watershed quality and productivity, and cause significant long-term loss of important fish and wildlife habitat. The Forest Service’s recent Draft Supplemental Information Report disregards many significant potential impacts of the sale, including to the region’s rare Alexander Archipelago wolf that has been devastated by habitat loss and reduced Sitka black-tailed deer populations due to past logging and road building activities. The Big Thorne sale will also cost taxpayers many millions of dollars while undercutting the very values that support the region’s employment base: salmon and tourism. The Tongass produces 70 percent of the salmon originating from our entire national forest system and hosts more than a million out-of-state visitors each year. Salmon fishing and tourism contribute more than 7,200 and 10,000 jobs, respectively, and roughly $1 billion each to the local economy. While industrial-scale logging and long-term timber contracts once dominated the Tongass, logging and milling of Tongass timber now accounts for fewer than 200 private-sector jobs. Projects like Big Thorne no longer are appropriate for the Tongass.
We urge you to halt the Big Thorne timber sale and, instead, allocate the Forest Service’s limited resources toward developing and implementing a forest plan amendment that brings a quick end to large-scale old-growth logging and ensures the region’s beautiful scenery and healthy watersheds remain intact. By investing in projects that support the fishing and tourism industries and the region’s small value-added specialty mills, the Forest Service can secure a diverse and stable economy for Southeast Alaska communities while also protecting the natural resources that make the Tongass so special to so many Americans throughout the country.
We thank you for your attention to this important issue.
###