The Tongass National Forest is a land of huge bears grown fat on salmon, eagles soaring endless skies, and 500-year-old trees standing silent sentry over a lush, verdant world. Old-growth trees foster the rich biodiversity of this rainforest and anchor its intricately balanced ecosystem.
Decades of devastating clearcut logging have forced some hard lessons here: everyone in the Tongass depends on its continued health, from Alaska Natives to newcomers, from tourists to local sawmills. Alaska Wilderness League is engaged in a collaborative effort in the region, bringing all these groups together to finally end the tug of war and develop a comprehensive plan for the Tongass.
With shared and durable success on the Tongass within reach, one timber company, the Sealaska Native Corporation, is appealing directly to Congress to transfer more public lands to private ownership for clearcut logging. If Congress goes along, it will undermine these delicate local conservation efforts.
Protection and wildlife restoration are necessary for any lasting solution on the Tongass. Tell Congress to support collaborative legislation which includes necessary conservation measures.
The Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska is a place of balance, where old-growth forests and salmon streams still support abundant fish and wildlife populations, sustain traditional ways of life, and serve as the lynchpin for local economies. In the same way, any successful attempt to craft a resource solution on the Tongass must seek a balance between the needs of many stakeholders and the needs of a healthy ecosystem.
For decades, the Tongass has also been a place of controversy and conflict; embodying the habitual tug of war between conservation and resource development. The standard approach for change has been one of single-interest, go-it-alone policies and tactics which serve only to foster conflict and controversy.
But recently, a new collaborative way of doing business in Southeast Alaska has emerged and is showing real progress. Thanks to the commitment and work of many diverse stakeholders, an unprecedented opportunity exists to resolve long-standing differences and achieve a durable, shared solution for the Tongass that protects and restores the most productive fish and wildlife habitat, meets the needs of local sawmill owners, resolves native land entitlements, and sustains local communities.
Through ongoing collaborative discussions, this is precisely the course that has been set. With more hard work and a reasonable amount of time, this collaborative effort can produce groundbreaking results.
Unfortunately, the recently introduced Southeast Alaska Native Land Entitlement Resolution Act of 2009 (S.881) typifies the controversial practices of the past and not the collaborative promise of the future. Sealaska Corporation's proposal to remove valuable public lands from the Tongass National Forest threatens to undermine the ongoing collaborative discussions and potential for success. Resolving native land entitlements is critically important, however it should be accomplished with the broader needs of the Tongass National Forest and the region's communities in mind.
[Your comments]
We encourage you to support achieving the strongest levels of protection possible for the America's rainforest through a collaborative approach on the Tongass National Forest, by opposing S. 881/H.R. 2099
Thank you.
