The Biden administration is proposing a broad ban on most commercial logging in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, a 16.7-million acre forest that has been a political football for decades.
“Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the proposal would provide $25 million for community development and would allow Alaska Natives and small-scale operators to continue to harvest some old-growth trees,” writes Juliet Eilperin in the Washington Post. “But Vilsack—who proposed a much more gradual transition away from old-growth logging when he was secretary under President Barack Obama—said it’s time to focus on other economic activities, such as fishing, recreation and tourism.”
The plan would overturn a Trump administration decision to allow old-growth logging and to allow roads to be built (necessary for logging) in what was previously designated a roadless area. However, that October 2020 decision was not as sweeping as it appeared. As the Forest Service stated at the time:
“although 9.4 million acres would no longer be subject to the 2001 Roadless Rule with the final rule, only 186,000 more acres would become available for timber production, and road construction is estimated to increase Tongass-wide from 994 miles in the no-action alternative to 1,043 miles in the final rule over the next 100 years.”
Even under the Trump administration, about one-third of the forest was designated wilderness, the most protected category of public land.
Alaska’s governor, senators and the congressman (all Republicans) oppose Biden’s move, which will take time to implement.
Why would any fiscal conservative defend logging of the Tongass National Forest? It all loses money, costing taxpayers millions of dollars a year.
If it isn’t subsidized, the Tongass would do no logging. The timber isn’t valuable enough and it is too far from markets.
I have long believed that Congress should give the Forest Service the authority to charge fees for recreation and other uses and to fund itself out of those fees, with no tax subsidies for any resource. The result would probably be some logging in Pacific Northwest and Southern forests and the rest of the National Forest System would be used mainly for recreation.— Randal O’Toole.