North America’s Forests: Page 14 Endangered Species Handbook

Forest

North America’s Forests: Page 14

Another major conservation struggle involves the magnificent Tongass National Forest in southeastern Alaska. This forest, covering 17 million acres, is the country's largest national forest--a mosaic of glaciers, mountains, fjords and islands covered by ancient trees. It makes up half of one of the largest remaining temperate rainforests on Earth, which extends 1,000 miles in an arc along the southeastern coast. At least 6 million acres of Tongass are--or were--old-growth rainforest (DiSilvestro 1990). Sitka Spruce, Western Hemlock, and Red and Yellow Cedar many hundreds of years old dominate the forest.

The Tongass is home to a number of rare animals. Approximately 10,000 Bald Eagles nest in the tops of trees (DiSilvestro 1990). More Grizzly Bears live in the Tongass than in the entire lower 48 states, denning in the holes of towering old trees. A race of the Grey Wolf known as the Alexander Archipelago Wolf (Canis lupus ligoni) inhabits the Tongass; numbering only about 1,000 animals, its population is in decline (Williams 1995). Logging threatens these wolves and rare wildlife, including the Queen Charlotte Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis laingi) and the Marbled Murrelet (FWS 1994). The Wolf and the Goshawk are candidates for listing on the Endangered Species Act. These and other species of this beautiful area cannot survive in clearcuts and logged-over forests. The American Rivers organization has listed Tongass's Thorne River as one of the 10 most endangered in the United States, having become silted and its banks eroded from logging (Williams 1995).

The cutting of the Tongass's giant trees began in 1833, and by 1926, six sawmills were operating; by 1930, most of the lowland and easily accessible timber and giant old trees had been cut (DiSilvestro 1990). In the 1950s the Forest Service allowed cutting of ancient trees in rugged, steep areas and opened the way for a wood pulp industry to be fed by clearcutting. The Service offered two 50-year contracts at bargain-basement prices, instead of the usual three- to five-year contracts (DiSilvestro 1990). It signed an exclusive contract with the Ketchikan Pulp Corporation and, unlike other national forests where contracts are open to bidding, this contract was awarded during secret meetings from which the public and conservation organizations were excluded. From this time onward, 200 million board feet or more of old-growth forest were logged annually from the Tongass National Forest (DiSilvestro 1990).

The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 divided most of the state among federal, state and native interests. Within the law was a provision requiring maximum logging levels in the Tongass National Forest, with the quota of 4.5 billion board feet to be logged every decade, with annual subsidies of $40 million from the federal government for logging roads and other aid to timber companies (DiSilvestro 1990). In the 15 years that followed, billions of board feet were logged in this magnificent rainforest, at a financial loss to the taxpayer.

National organizations, including the Taxpayers for Common Sense based in Washington, DC, criticized the clearcutting of this and other national forests which provide no income to the federal treasury and are entirely subsidized by public funds (Schmitz 1996). A 1995 General Accounting Office report found that Tongass's Timber Program was the biggest money loser in the National Forest system, with a negative net return of $102 million to the US Treasury between 1990 and 1994 (Schmitz 1996). More recently, a study by the John Muir Project found that in the years 1997 through 1999, the National Forest Service Timber Sale Program operated at a net loss to taxpayers of more than $3.3 billion (Hanson 2000). This research found that less than 3 percent of the country's total annual wood consumption, and less than 4 percent of the sawtimber used for construction, comes from national forests (Hanson 2000). A nationwide poll in 1998 found that 69 percent of Americans oppose allowing timber companies to log the national forests (Hanson 2000).

The fight to save these forests is being waged in the courts, with public criticism and legal actions brought by conservation organizations. A 1987 book, The Tongass. Alaska's Vanishing Rainforest, dramatically illustrated the great beauty of this forest and the ravaging effects of logging, including clearcuts on steep, erodable slopes. This publication served as a catalyst for the passage of the Tongass Timber Reform Act of 1990 that stopped the $40 million subsidy to loggers and set aside 1 million acres to be closed to logging (Ketchum and Ketchum 1994). It did not stop or appreciably slow logging elsewhere in Tongass, however, and called for 150 million board feet a year to be cut. The book was updated in 1994 and described the continuing bitter battle being waged to protect this vast area (Ketchum and Ketchum 1994). In 1997, the heavily polluting Ketchikan pulp mill was finally closed. The Forest Service's 10-year plan for Tongass National Forest, finalized in May 1997, opened up 670,000 acres to logging, authorizing the cutting of 220 million to 267 million board feet of timber annually (this is enough to load 50,000 logging trucks or build more than 20,000 houses a year) (Cushman 1997). The Forest Service stated that the portion of land that would be set aside would make it unnecessary to list the Alexander Archipelago Wolf and the Queen Charlotte Goshawk on the Endangered Species Act. Conservation organizations criticized the plan and the failure to support listing of these species. The Alaskan Congressional delegation expressed its disappointment that more timber had not been open to logging (Cushman 1997). The 100- to 125-year cycle of cutting by the Forest Service assured that old-growth forests and their complex and diverse ecosystems will disappear.

The Forest Service held nationwide hearings during the summer of 2000 regarding a proposal that some 50 million acres of national forests be protected from road-building. This proposal specifically exempted the Tongass National Forest. The Forest Service plan would allow massive road construction and logging in the Tongass's remaining pristine forests. In a surprise decision prior to leaving office, President Bill Clinton authorized the inclusion of 9.3 million acres of the Tongass National Forest in the final plan; although delayed until 2004, this was an extremely important event, condemned by the Alaskan Congressional delegation (Hughes 2000). The plan calls for $13 to $20 million to be spent in Alaska creating jobs lost in the timber industry. The plan had drawn more than 1.5 million letters and e-mail messages, the overwhelming majority in favor of banning road-building. In spite of opposition to the designation of wilderness in this vast national forest, conservationists succeeded in obtaining a moratorium on logging of 9 million acres, pending the results of studies on whether they qualify for permanent protection under the Wilderness Act (Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund 2001).

Another huge national forest in Alaska, the Chugach, located at the headwaters of the salmon-rich Kenai River, has received far less attention than the Tongass, in spite of being the second largest of all US National Forests. In 1996, the Forest Service cut nearly 16 million board feet in this old-growth forest.