Tongass
<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><a href="https://earthjustice.org/blog/2019-september/tongass-national-forest-victory-old-growth-climate"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://earthjustice.org/blog/2019-september/tongass-national-forest-victory-old-growth-climate</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Major Victory for Alaska’s Majestic Trees and for the Climate</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Protecting trees, particularly old-growth trees in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, is a win for local communities and for the climate.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By Jessica A. Knoblauch | March 12, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A recent court victory halted a timber sale on Prince of Wales Island in Alaska.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A recent court victory halted a timber sale on Prince of Wales Island in Alaska.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ANDREA IZZOTTI / GETTY IMAGES</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Prince of Wales Island in southeast Alaska, majestic mega-trees that are key to combatting climate change have been protected from chainsaws after a federal judge rejected a sweeping logging plan that would have spanned a project area of 1.8 million acres in the Tongass National Forest.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Containing nearly one-third of the world’s old-growth temperate rainforest, the Tongass is home to large stands of trees that have lived on this planet for centuries. Some of these giants are even older than the United States itself.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The old-growth forest of the Tongass provides key habitat for the area’s diverse array of wildlife, including blacktail deer; wolves; brown bears; and goshawks, a stocky raptor with a barrel chest. The Tongass also provides local residents, subsistence hunters, tourists, and many others the opportunity to recreate among irreplaceable old-growth forests.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The law makes change — join us, as we make that change. Subscribe to Earthjustice emails.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Our Privacy Policy</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But the Tongass trees — and trees in general — play an even bigger role in our world by keeping the climate in check. As many of us learned in school, trees “breathe in” carbon dioxide and “breathe out” oxygen. So it’s no surprise that these majestic organisms are heralded for their massive potential to combat the climate crisis.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A meteorologist explains how trees can help fight climate change.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CBS NEWS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Last summer, researchers came to a mind-blowing conclusion that planting a trillion trees across the world could remove two-thirds of all human-caused carbon emissions. Large, older trees in particular are great at sequestering carbon. According to leading conservation scientist Dominick DellaSala, the Tongass alone stores billions of tons of carbon, keeping the heat-trapping element out of the atmosphere.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Yet in 2019, the U.S. Forest Service authorized the huge timber sale on Prince of Wales Island, home to 12 communities who depend on the island’s natural resources for hunting, fishing, recreation, and other activities. Earthjustice, on behalf of eight conservation organizations, immediately sued the agency to stop the massive timber sale from going forward.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The sun rises over Prince of Wales Island.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The sun rises over Prince of Wales Island.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CHIP PORTER / GETTY IMAGES</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The timber sale was the largest the agency had authorized in any national forest in 30 years. Throughout the approval process, residents and forest users were kept in the dark as to where exactly logging would occur. This process ran counter to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a federal environmental law that sets standards for public engagement and gives people like Prince of Wales subsistence hunters an opportunity to offer meaningful input when it comes to government decisions that will affect them.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The National Environmental Policy Act is very important to people such as myself, whose lives are completely dependent on our natural resources,” explains Don Hernandez, a resident who chairs the Southeast Regional Subsistence Advisory Council. “The way in which the [logging] project was conducted is an example of the Forest Service weakening the NEPA process.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On March 11, a federal judge ruled in our favor, finding that the U.S. Forest Service had violated NEPA, and other environmental laws, when it approved the enormous Prince of Wales timber sale. It’s not yet clear whether the Forest Service will have to abandon the project entirely, because the judge has not decided on a legal remedy.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Earthjustice attorney Tom Waldo has been defending the Tongass for more than 30 years.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Earthjustice attorney Tom Waldo has been defending the Tongass for more than 30 years.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MICHAEL PENN FOR EARTHJUSTICE</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“This ruling is a win for old-growth forests, deer, wolves, and people on Prince of Wales Island,” says Earthjustice attorney Tom Waldo. “Subsistence hunters and other residents can breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that a massive industrial logging operation isn’t imminent in the forested areas they know and rely upon.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What’s more, he added, the ruling will affect other Forest Service timber project approvals that used the same formula of presenting a broad project plan without sharing site-specific information. A court victory that upholds NEPA is key because it may protect other old-growth trees across the Tongass National Forest. In addition to several planned timber sales, 9 million acres of the vast temperate rainforest are threatened by a Trump administration effort to roll back the Roadless Rule – a popular safeguard against logging and roadbuilding. At the same time, the Trump administration has also launched attacks on NEPA, the nation’s first environmental law.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Given the carbon sequestration superpowers of old-growth rainforests, the last thing we should do is cut or burn them down. For now, trees that have stood strong for centuries will continue to stand, mighty and intact, because of Earthjustice’s win.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This blog was originally published on September 27, 2019. It has been updated to reflect the March 2020 court ruling.</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/national-forest-trump-logging-tongass-2645476974.html"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.ecowatch.com/national-forest-trump-logging-tongass-2645476974.html</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>A <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">federal judge in Alaska</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><a href="https://earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/files/40-order-granting-msj_3-11-20.pdf" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">ruled</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">late Wednesday against a</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/trump-administration" target="self" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">Trump administration</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">plan to open 1.8 million acres of America's largest national</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/forests" target="self" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">forest</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">to logging.</span></b></font></div><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body css-listicle-body-2645476974" style="margin-top: -15px; line-height: 1.5;"><div class="body-description" style="clear: both;"><div class="rebellt-item col1" data-basename="particle-1" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/national-forest-trump-logging-tongass-2645476974.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1" data-id="1" data-is-image="False" data-reload-ads="false" id="rebelltitem1"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Forest Service plan targeted part of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/tongass-national-forest" target="self" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">Tongass National Forest</a> on Prince of Wales Island. It would have been the largest sale of national forest timber in 30 years</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, </span><a href="https://earthjustice.org/news/press/2020/court-ruling-halts-massive-old-growth-rainforest-logging-plan" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">Earthjustice pointed out</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, permitting 164 miles of new roads and clearing an area of forest three times the size of Manhattan, more than half of it old growth. But U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason ruled that the</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> plan violated the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/national-environmental-policy-act" target="self" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">National Environmental Policy Act</a> (NEPA) because the agency did not take all of its potential impacts into account, <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/487286-alaska-judge-stalls-logging-in-tongass-national-forest" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">The Hill reported</a>.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /></div><div class="rebellt-item col1" data-basename="particle-2" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/national-forest-trump-logging-tongass-2645476974.html?rebelltitem=2#rebelltitem2" data-id="2" data-is-image="False" data-reload-ads="false" id="rebelltitem2" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p /><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The magnificent, ancient forests of the Tongass just got a reprieve from the chain saws," Randi Spivak, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/public-lands" target="self" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">public lands</a> director at the <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">Center for Biological Diversity</a> (CBD), said in the Earthjustice press release. "We're thrilled the court agreed that the Trump administration broke the law when it approved cutting thousands of acres of old-growth <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/trees" target="self" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">trees</a>. It's critical to protect our remaining old-growth forests to have any chance of stopping the extinction crisis and slowing <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="self" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">climate change</a>."</font></p><p /></div><div class="rebellt-item col1" data-basename="particle-3" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/national-forest-trump-logging-tongass-2645476974.html?rebelltitem=3#rebelltitem3" data-id="3" data-is-image="False" data-reload-ads="false" id="rebelltitem3"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">CBD was one of eight <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation" target="self" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">conservation</a> groups that challenged the plan with representation from Earthjustice, according to fellow plaintiff the <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/federal-court-rules-against-massive-old-growth-rainforest-logging-plan-alaska?ms=digital-eng-social-facebook-x-20200300_fb_link-tongass_update&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=20200300_fb_link-tongass_update&fbclid=IwAR38IjY1dTB_McBAyIG6qhW2-JLaXz9Z7jFx9jm5hZv9RVlBkv4i10r2jXY" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">National Audubon Society</a>. The groups, also including <a href="https://www.seacc.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">Southeast Alaska Conservation Council</a>, <a href="https://alaskarainforest.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">Alaska Rainforest Defenders</a>, <a href="https://defenders.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">Defenders of Wildlife</a>, <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">Sierra Club</a>, <a href="https://www.alaskawild.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">Alaska Wilderness League</a> and the <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">Natural Resources Defense Council</a>, argued that it violated NEPA</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, which allows people to weigh in on major infrastructure projects that will impact their community. Prince of Wales Island is an important location for subsistence hunting and fishing, but the Forest Service did not say in its plans where logging would take place, which meant it was impossible for the local community to meaningfully respond to the plans.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Judge Gleason agreed </b>with this assessment of the project, arguing that the service did not state where logging and road building would occur, according to <a href="https://www.courthousenews.com/judge-halts-trump-logging-plans-in-pristine-alaska-forest/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">Courthouse News Service</a>.</font></p></div><div class="rebellt-item col1" data-basename="particle-7" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/national-forest-trump-logging-tongass-2645476974.html?rebelltitem=7#rebelltitem7" data-id="7" data-is-image="True" data-reload-ads="false" id="rebelltitem7" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p /></div><div class="rebellt-item col1" data-basename="particle-9" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/national-forest-trump-logging-tongass-2645476974.html?rebelltitem=9#rebelltitem9" data-id="9" data-is-image="False" data-reload-ads="false" id="rebelltitem9" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p /><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"By not developing actual site-specific information, the Forest Service limited its ability to make informed decisions regarding impacts to subsistence uses and presented local communities with vague, hypothetical, and over-inclusive representations of the project's effects over a 15-year period," Gleason wrote.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gleason also ruled that the plan violated the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which requires federal agencies to determine how projects on public lands will impact those who use the lands for subsistence, according to The Audubon Society.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The ruling comes as the Trump administration is <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-attacking-nepa-2644853997.html" target="_self" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">proposing changes</a> to NEPA that would drastically weaken the landmark environmental law by, among other things, limiting the length of the review process, exempting certain projects from any review and allowing federal agencies to ignore a project's climate impacts.</font></p><p /></div><div class="rebellt-item col1" data-basename="particle-10" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/national-forest-trump-logging-tongass-2645476974.html?rebelltitem=10#rebelltitem10" data-id="10" data-is-image="False" data-reload-ads="false" id="rebelltitem10" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p /><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alaska Wilderness League conservation director Kristen Miller said that Wednesday's ruling showed the importance of NEPA.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The Prince of Wales project would've been the largest logging project that we have seen anywhere in our national forests in decades, and it would have destroyed thousands of acres of irreplaceable old-growth forest in the Tongass National Forest," Miller said in the Earthjustice release. "Today's ruling is a win for Southeast Alaska's billion-dollar fishing and tourism industries, and a reminder as the Trump administration tries to significantly weaken the National Environmental Policy Act of the critical role NEPA plays in allowing the public to meaningfully weigh in on issues impacting their public lands."</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The ultimate fate of the Forest Service project is not yet known, as Judge Gleason did not yet decide on a legal remedy for the plaintiffs' suit. The service did not respond to requests for comment from either Courthouse News Service or The Hill.</font></p></div></div></div>