The Biden administration on Wednesday followed through on a commitment to ban commercial logging and other development on more than 9 million acres of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest — the nation’s largest national forest.
The move reverses a Trump administration rule that removed protections for the world’s largest intact temperate rainforest.
In a statement announcing the new rules, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the Tongass “is key to preserving biodiversity and addressing the climate crisis.”
“Restoring no-way protections listens to the voices of Tribal Nations and the people of Southeast Alaska while recognizing the importance of fishing and tourism to the region’s economy.”
The announcement is the latest in a decades-long tug-of-war over the region’s future.
President Theodore Roosevelt established the Tongass as a protected national forest in 1907 and later expanded it to its current 16.7 million acres. In 2001, President Bill Clinton signed into law the “roadless rule,” which banned road building and timber harvesting on 58.5 million acres of national forest land, including more than 9 million acres of the Tongass.
The Trump administration exempted the Tongass from the no-road rule in 2020, lifting Clinton-era logging limits on 9.3 million acres and reclassifying 188,000 acres, including 168,000 acres of old-growth timber, as suitable for harvesting.
Often referred to as the “Amazon of America,” the Tongass stores about 8% of the total carbon sequestered in forests in the lower 48 states, according to the US Department of Agriculture, and 44% of all carbon stored in national forests worldwide. United States of America. And there is growing recognition that preserving forests will be critical to the fight against global climate change and species loss.
Environmental groups applauded Wednesday’s announcement as Republicans and timber interests accused the Biden administration of locking up state resources.
Andy Moderow of the Alaska Wilderness League said the decision “recognizes that the future of Southeast Alaska is based on sustainable forest use” and “puts public lands and people first.”
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R) called it a “huge loss for Alaskans.”
“Alaskans deserve access to the resources the Tongass provides – jobs, renewable energy resources and tourism, not a government plan that treats humans in the working forest like an invasive species,” Dunleavy said in a statement.