For all of you who love the Tongass National Forest as much as me, this is a must read for perspective. I was born in the Tongass and spent much of my youth there, and I put myself through college commercial fishing around the Tongass. Today I visit each year to fish salmon and trout, and I want that opportunity to be there for my girls, too. Check it out. Must read in my opinion.
The Parnell administration’s Timber Task Force recently unveiled a proposal to carve out two million acres of the Tongass National Forest for clear-cut logging under a state-managed “logging trust.” The stated goal is to revive Southeast Alaska’s timber industry that collapsed two decades ago amid changing market conditions, logging cutbacks and evolving public opinion about timber harvesting on national forests.
Trout Unlimited supports sustainable resource development. But any attempt to turn back the clock, roll back important protections for salmon streams, and return to the days of industrial-scale logging in the Tongass — home to one of the country’s healthiest and most productive salmon fisheries — is a complete non-starter.
Rather than seeking a return to the days when timber and subsidies were king on the Tongass, with hundreds of millions of board feet logged annually at huge losses to taxpayers, the state should promote the existing Read More at the Alaska Dispatch