Alaska Roadless Rule

 The following is a draft of my comments due by 12/16/19 to the Forest Service dealing with the Road Rules imposed in 2001.  Basically this rule limited any new road construction on the Tongass National Forest, the largest National Forest in the U.S.   The Trump administration want to change this and open up these forests for more logging.  Note the link below for more information.   Will forward a brief history of logging and what I experienced, when I worked there on a detail in 1992 or 93 (don't remember the year).  The logging roads were constructed by pounding pit-run rock in to the boggy ground with Cats and other heavy equipment to support the off highway loads that had 16 foot log bunks, since most these roads had no public traffic to deal with.   Hopefully UW can spread the word about this and individual members can read the draft EIS and make their own comments.

DRAFT COMMENTS:

The preferred alternative  to change the 2001 Roadless Rule is way too extreme for the Tongass National Forest, where 70% of the old growth forest was removed between 1954 to 1990.  It would take 300 years for many of these cut over areas to become the forests they once were with an overstory of spruce, hemlock and cedar.   How much more rock is available to pound into the boggy ground to firm up all the new roads in order to support the off-highway loads to transport the logs down to the sea, where they will be  assembled into rafts for delivery to the mills or made available to the export market?   This is the last temperate rain forest in the world that is sequestering carbon dioxide.  A world that is being altered by a warming climate, as evident along the Arctic coast of Alaska, where native villages are eroding away and the permafrost is melting.   Alaska today is very dependent on tourism and commercial fishing, which makes up 25% of the economy.   Logging only makes up 1% of the economy.   Is it worth risking  one of the last great salmon fishery habitats by putting more sediment into the streams and altering the landscape of many watersheds?  This preferred alternative will only produce a short term economical gain and a long term ecological disaster.  Lets consider more thinning alternatives to help restore the cut-over areas of the past and utilize existing roads.    What kind of a world to we want to leave for the next generations?

more info:  

www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=54511

Please make written comments by 12/16/19  to:

USDA Forest Service

Attn:  Alaska Road Rule

P.O. Box 21628

Juneau, Alaska 99802

Or email:  akroadlessrule@usda.gov