The Trump administration is opening up more than 9 million acres of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest to logging, road building, and other development.
The decision, to be announced formally on Thursday, would exempt untouched portions of the nation’s largest national forest from the Clinton-era “roadless rule,” which had prohibited development in those areas of the forest.
Republican politicians in Alaska, including Senate Energy Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski and Gov. Mike Dunleavy, have pushed for the Trump administration to open up the Tongass to more development. But the move has been met with fierce opposition from environmentalists, conservation groups, and even some conservatives.
The Reagan-founded group Citizens for the Republic, for example, pressured President Trump to reverse course, arguing that opening up the Tongass to more logging would only benefit China, the main purchaser of the region’s timber.
Collin O’Mara, CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, called the Trump administration’s move an “ecological disaster.” The 16-million-acre forest is North America’s largest intact rainforest, home to diverse wildlife and old-growth trees. It is also a massive carbon sink, storing about 8% of the total carbon emissions absorbed by all of the national forests in the lower 48 states.
“The determination of this administration to destroy 9 million acres of old-growth forest that provides a home to iconic wildlife and helps mitigate climate change is completely mind-boggling,” O’Mara said.
