(CN) — The Biden administration has proposed repealing a Trump-era exemption to the Alaska Roadless Rule for the Tongass National Forest, the largest national forest in the United States and home to a cornucopia of unique flora and fauna, some of which are endangered.
Public comment on the proposal is slated for next week and if taken up by the U.S. Forest Service, it will reverse the determinations of the Trump administration that opened up the sprawling temperate rainforest for road construction that critics said would lead to industrial logging that could imperil the natural resources of the forest.
“Restoring the Tongass’ roadless protections supports the advancement of economic, ecologic and cultural sustainability in Southeast Alaska in a manner that is guided by local voices,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in a statement released Thursday evening.
He said the move reflects the wishes of local voices, including indigenous tribes, and will secure important economic advantages related to the region’s reliance on fishing and tourism.
Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and certain members of the Alaskan delegation to Congress, including Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski, have consistently argued the Clinton-era Roadless Rule should be repealed to help the local economy and the timber industry, which they argue has been decimated by overburdensome regulations.
“Alaska is a unique land whose potential for our state and nation can best be realized only when we’re free from the unthinking application of one-size-fits-all national rules, in violation of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act and the Tongass Timber Reform Act,” Dunleavy said in October 2020, when the Trump administration agreed to exempt Tongass from the rule.
Environmentalists lauded the Biden administration’s move, saying the Roadless Rule is not only necessary to protect natural resources including the world’s largest temperate rainforest, but also helps combat climate change by keeping one of the world’s largest carbon sinks intact.
“This administration aspires to lead on the international stage in the fight for a livable climate and restoring this critical forest protection will preserve a natural climate solution that benefits communities around the globe,” said Andy Monderow, director of the Alaska Wilderness League.
Logging in the forest began in the 1960s and picked up in pace throughout the 1970s. The timber there is special and provides raw material for expensive musical instruments, decking and elegant shingles. In the 1980s, environmentalists began protesting the logging of old-growth forests, pointing to the impingement on the habitat of more than 400 species of wildlife, including the endangered bald eagle.
Road construction in national forests contributes to the fragmentation of habitat for species and facilitates the removal of some of the forest’s ancient trees.
“The forest attracts people from around the world for world-class recreation, hunting, and sport and commercial salmon fishing,” Monderow said. “And it remains as essential now as it has for thousands of years to indigenous communities that continue to rely on the forest for their cultural and subsistence traditions.”
President Bill Clinton instituted the roadless rule, which effectively ended logging in several portions of the forest, as logging companies could not build the roads necessary to reach certain stands and send the harvested timber back toward pulp mills.
Trump rescinded that rule in the waning days of his administration, which some construed as a gift to Murkowski who has long advocated for opening up at least a portion of the forest to development.
Murkowski and others say logging a tiny portion of the enormous forest will not have an adverse effect on the ecology of the forest but will help provide high-paying jobs.
Tourism does create more jobs than natural-resource extraction industries, but they tend not to pay as well.
The Tongass consists of 16.7 million acres of temperate rainforest home to a smorgasbord of flora and fauna unique to the area.
The Alexander Archipelago wolves, Sitka black-tailed deer and the northern goshawk all call the forest home. Recreation is popular in Tongass, which incorporates 12 different communities.
Biden will make his proposal official on Tuesday followed by a 60-day public comment period before finalization.
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