Tongass National Forest. Photo: Henry Hartley
This amounts to a National Emergency for conservation efforts.
In an appalling turnabout, the Obama administration has sold out America’s national treasure, the magnificent Tongass National Forest, in SE Alaska, to the logging industry.
The loggers and chainsaws are in Tongass National Forest now. There is no time to waste in getting this betrayal of the American people stopped.
To get involved, contact Greenpeace , The Wilderness Society ,SaveBioGems.org, Ancient Forests International, sign the Care2 Petition, or contact the Obama Administration, or your representative.
Just hours after heroically overturning the flawed Bush-era logging plan known as WOPR, according to Greenpeace, plans were approved to sacrifice the national heritage of millions of Americans, not to mention the world, for the financial gain of a few.
Tongass is a 17 million acre temperate rain forest, the largest in America.
Some things need to remain sacred.
This forest is vital to more than rare and endangered plant and animal species. According to SuperEco, about 75,000 people, including members of several indigenous tribes, depend on this land for living.
The logging contract was awarded to Pacific Log and Lumber owned by Ketchikan resident Steve Seley.
On July 17, the administration stopped the flawed WOPR initiative, thereby saving Oregon’s ancient northwest forests. While everyone was celebrating and writing thank-you notes to the President, Obama’s Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack was quietly approving a new plan, using our taxpayer dollars, to allow logging of this priceless, road-less forest ecosystem. Laws to protect the remaining road-less wilderness areas of American were instituted by the Clinton administration.
All that is now in jeopardy, as it sets a precedent to open even more of our precious remaining public wilderness areas to exploiters.
Why should we care about protecting Tongass National Forest from logging?
For one, this ancient, vital forest ecosystem belongs to all Americans. It is supposed to exist for all Americans for all time, not as a quick cash-cow for a few greedy and powerful businesses.
Another reason to care is the endangered wildlife there. The Alexander Archipelago Islands Wolf, which exists nowhere else on Earth. Also threatened are black-tailed deer, grizzly bears, wolverines, black bears, timber wolves and bald eagles.
More, without the shady, cool, ancient forest canopy, the area will dry more and be subject to increasingly rapid temperature fluctuations, exacerbating the problems the Earth faces from forest fires, drought, climate change and carbon buildup.
Once it is clear-cut and the loggers and politicians have taken their money, what are the rest of us of left with? The American tax payer and anyone who values the wilderness will have been robbed; our heritage vandalized.
If you’ve never stood on land that’s been clear-cut, it’s a lifeless Martian landscape. Even years later, there’s little improvement. I know. I’ve seen and personally walked on clear-cut land.
While eventually something will grow back, it will never, ever be like the magnificent, complete, diverse and flourishing forest system that the National Parks System was supposed to preserve.
Once the timber mill executives have their sawdust and their profits, and the forest is decimated and the wildlife destroyed (it’s certainly not going to grow back in our lifetime), what will be left of our National Forest?
This video will give you an idea.
Is this something you want to support with your tax dollars?
Comments
Jeff, I have studied forests/logging.I disagree with your assesment. There were ancient forests long before humans arrived on the scene. Since the advent of humans the world has been systematically deforested, much to the planet's detriment. I understand that the timber industry teaches the 'benefits' of logging as a management tool, but it is, in fact (IMO) a way to justify what the industry wants to do, anyway. Recent studies support the fact that forests hundred of years old are actually important carbon sinks, and vital for the well being of the Earth. Please see my story "Ancient forests coud be key to slowing climate change." And BTW I've seen ‘selectively thinned' acreage once. The owner was horrified by the Martian landscape that resulted-- not at ALL what had been promised.
Logging damages ecosystems. This is not drivel.
jeff schick, Cathy believes that man should never exploit the environment for their use even if it is for sustenance. If Cathy had her way throughout history, man would never have cut a tree for shelter. Never killed a bison for clothing and food. Never changed the course of a stream to water a small crop. Never dig for a fuel that may advance their way of life. Never dump the spoils of the wonderful life so many now enjoy.
Earth over HomoSapien. We are the intruders.
For someone who "studied forests/logging" to make the profound statement that
"There were ancient forests long before humans arrived on the scene" somehow makes me question the balance of her work.
I have been to the Tsongass woods. Beautiful.
There were much more violent and inhospitable lands before humans arrived too. So what? Do we want those times?
Do we want to live in the late 1700's? The 1200's? In caves?
America has been the most responsible caretaker of nature and wildlife and the environment in the world. As we realized some of the issues we needed to deal with, we did. Right or wrong. Remember "acid rain"? Where did that corrosive rain go? Did it EVEN EXIST or did we get rid of it? It is one or the other. Were we lied to or did we fix the emissions that caused it? The Adirondacks were most at risk. Have you been there? Pretty damn nice if you ask me. Trout streams. Hunting. Just nice!
WE are but a flea turd on this planet.
To me, Cathy's answer to jeff schick is no different than the other conspiracy theories of 9-11 or "birthers" or the
global warming/climate change or UFO people.
Cathy says: "Since the advent of humans the world has been systematically deforested, much to the planet's detriment"
Take this statement of purported fact on its face. Since the advent of humans....
WE ARE THE PROBLEM. Mother Earth would be better without us.
Cathy. If humans have been a detriment to the planet, where do you believe the Earth and we humans would be today if we never cut a tree? Exploited the Earth for our enrichment?
Would YOUR personal way of live been possible?
Would your children have such a promising future?
It;s called perspective. Get some.
We are but a flea turd in the scheme of things.No matter what we do. Give or take a few hundred thousand years. We have have no effect.
I do give you credit for bipartisanship Cathy!
Kudos.
Dear Chilled: Yes, I am completely bipartisan. I do thank you for that. The issues that matter to me.
To answer you: When a resource is exploited, as in logging, why is YOUR right to remove those trees more important than MY right to enjoy the untouched forest and all its wildlife? I pay my taxes, just like you do.
If you've been in a logged-over forest you know how much damage is done and how long it takes the forest to recover, if it does. It will never again, in our lifetimes or our childrens', be what it was.
What right do you have to take that from me? From others who cherish nature?
The last pristine forests have an intrinsic value beyond being 'harvested'.
Chilled, with the exploding human population and all the areas already being exploited, some things should remain sacred.
For 'the rest'of us humans.
Please, Cathy come help trim the trees that I planted 6 years ago that are so tall that they are encroaching on my neighbors property,like me they live in the Tongass,and they would just as soon cut them down.
"Chilled to the bone" sorry but you are the flea turd. Go find a pile.
Wiegand is so articulate yet can add nothing. How bright of you.
I have never seen a forest anywhere that has ever recovered from logging. For this to happen would require several life times. I have however seen where the cut forests provide temporary jobs and great income for the timber industry. It might be a good idea to see where the lumber cut from Tongass National Forest is sent. This might provide a clue as to why Obama made this decision. As we know Washington is all about deals.
Wiegand says: "I have never seen a forest anywhere that has ever recovered from logging."
MOST large forests are NOT virgin stands so in fact, they HAVE recovered after being logged. Some have been logged multiple times.
The forests we see now are mostly made up of younger and much smaller trees. They have not recovered and will not recover for several hundred years. The Redwoods may take several thousand years to reach the 300-350 foot height on the coast. A redwood that has been cut will sprout back after being cut down. The same trunk will sprout into several other smaller trees. It will never reach the original height because the several new trunks all have the same root system. The 200-250 ft Doug Firs can recover in about 600-1000 years, a 100 ft cedar about 400-600 years, a 4ft diameter yellow pine about 300-400 years. What remains of most of the great forests we see in America, are just the logging leftovers.
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