Congress Should Hold the Line
Against Logging Subsidies
House Opposes Logging Roads Subsidies -- Sen. Stevens Proposes Business as Usual
By Sean Cosgrove, Sierra Club's National Forest Policy Specialist
August 10, 2007
In late June, the House of Representatives again voted overwhelmingly in the FY08 Interior Appropriations bill against continuing federal subsidies for logging road construction in the Tongass National Forest in Alaska. Instead of taking action on the Interior bill alone, the Senate will likely combine a number of appropriations bills into an Omnibus appropriations bill later this year. This means that the historic House vote against continuing new logging road subsidies will need to be included in the conference committee on the FY08 Omnibus bill.
Yet, just as the House took decisive action against more destructive logging subsidies, long-time logging proponent Sen. Ted Stevens proposed a provision in the Senate bill that would insulate the same old management plan and allow the Forest Service to continue planning timber sales that target roadless areas and ancient forests. While the House voted 283-145, the Alaskan senator who brought us "The Bridge to Nowhere" is telling the Forest Service that business as usual is OK by him. Sen. Stevens' proposal sends a green light to the Forest Service to ignore citizens' demands for wild forest protection and move ahead with more subsidized logging roads.
We need Congress to stand by its vote and oppose logging road subsidies in the Tongass National Forest. When Congress reconvenes in September Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) will not only be working to nullify the historic House vote to eliminate logging road subsidies, but will be strongly pushing his Senate colleagues to insulate a failed pro-logging forest management plan from legal review. Congress should insist that the Chabot-Andrews amendment opposing logging road subsidies in the Tongass National Forest is included in the final appropriations bill. We shouldn't be subsidizing destruction of an incredible national treasure. We need protection for all remaining wild roadless forests in the Tongass National Forest.
The Tongass National Forest represents our nation's most significant tract of old-growth forest and provides abundant habitat for a diversity of fish and wildlife species, many of which have declined substantially in the lower 48 states. During the last 50 years, the timber industry has logged nearly half a million acres of old-growth forest and constructed over 5,000 miles of logging roads in the Tongass. Although the federal government has always lost money with its commercial logging program in Alaska, the Forest Service is still planning new logging roads and timber sales in wild roadless forests. The US Forest Service typically loses an average of $40 million each year logging the Tongass. This amounts to an annual subsidy of about $200,000 for each direct Tongass logging job. Moreover, the Roadless Area Conservation Rule is in place across the entire National Forest System - except the Tongass. These wild forests deserve protection too.
TAKE ACTION: Through the month of August and into early September, Sierra Club members should call their Representatives and Senators and urge them to insist on no new logging road subsidies in the Tongass National Forest. Contact them in Washington, DC through the Capitol Hill switchboard at (202) 224-3121 or in their local district or state office.
For more information see the Sierra Club's website at www.sierraclub.org/forests or call Sean Cosgrove at (202) 675-2382.
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