Biden administration completes work to protect Alaska’s Tongass National Forest

An image of Carroll Bay in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest on August 9, 2018. On Thursday, the Biden administration restored forest protection. Photo courtesy of Brock Martin/US Forest Service

January 26 (UPI) — The USDA agreed on a rule Thursday restoring protection to the 16.7 million-acre Tongass National Forest in Alaska.

The new rule will repeal the 2020 Alaska Off-Road Rule introduced by former President Donald Trump and revert to the 2001 version of the rule, which prohibited construction, road reconstruction and logging in inventoried off-road areas.

“As our nation’s largest national forest and the largest intact temperate rainforest in the world, the Tongass National Forest plays a key role in conserving biodiversity and tackling the climate crisis,” said Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. in a statement.

Roadless Inventory Areas are areas of US Forest Service land that are currently free of roads and can be designated as protected areas.

Last July, Biden said the White House was working to restore land restrictions to mitigate the effects of climate change. Trump removed the “off-road” rule for the forest in a 2020 executive order that opened up the land to logging and other businesses.

The USDA said the US Forest Service received about 112,000 public comment documents, most of which favored restoring off-road protection, in addition to consultations with Southeast Alaska tribal peoples on the issue.

“Off-Road Protection Restoration listens to the voices of the tribal peoples and residents of Southeast Alaska, while recognizing the importance of fishing and tourism to the region’s economy,” Vilsack said.

Government officials also said that Tongass is important for carbon sequestration and storage to help mitigate climate change. US forests absorb enough carbon dioxide, equivalent to more than 10% of annual US greenhouse gas emissions.

“Protecting the Tongass will help protect watersheds, improve climate and ecosystem health, and protect areas important to jobs and the well-being of society, and this directly depends on the contribution of tribal nations,” said the Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment of the Ministry of Agriculture USA Homer Wilks. said.

Both Republican Senators from Alaska, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, opposed the decision on Thursday. in a joint statement.

“The Biden administration’s decision to restore [the Roadless Rule] is federal paternalism at its worst,” Murkowski said, Sullivan said. “Approximately 80% of the Tongas area is already protected by existing law, land use designations and the forest planning process.

“There is no threat of large-scale development from logging or any other activity. With this decision, the Biden administration is turning Tongass into a political football, where access changes with each new president and creates a whip for those who may want to invest or build in southeast Alaska.”

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