The Tongass is our largest national forest at over 17 million acres, and is the largest intact temperate rain forest in the world. During the last half-century, the Alaska timber industry has logged over a million acres of phenomenal old growth forest from the forests of Southeast Alaska, around half from National Forests, half from state and native corporation lands. 

It is these treasured old-growth stands that support the region’s quite astonishing biological richness.

Massive Logging Project Threatens Wildlife and Cultural Values

Wildlife on Kuiu Island has suffered from the abusive logging practices of the past and will be critically harmed from further road-building and clearcutting.  Sitka black-tailed deer, black bear, moose, marten and wolves would be significantly threatened by further habitat loss on Kuiu Island.

Deer have been a mainstay for the Tlingit people on North Kuiu Island for centuries but an entire generation of that culture has suffered from the devastating impacts of large-scale clearcutting on the island.  Every new mile of road, every newly leveled acre, further reduces habitat and magnifies the loss of this culture’s traditional use of their ancestral lands Now, A Plan For Even More Roads and Clear cuts The Forest Service now proposes even more clear cuts on North Kuiu Island.  This proposal would harvest timber from 1,425 acres and would involve construction of 19 miles of new road within the traditional territory of Kake, Alaska’s, Tlingit residents.

The agency’s Tongass logging program is ill-advised and costs taxpayers millions of dollars.  According to a federal court it is also illegal.  A ruling last August found that the Forest Service misled the public during development of the logging plan for the Tongass.  The agency admitted to “mistakenly” doubling the demand for trees from the rainforests of southeast Alaska.  The court termed the forest plan “fatally infected” and required a revised plan for the Tongass.  Despite the court order, the Forest Service continues to use the discredited plan as the basis for opening up more wild forest land to logging.

The Forest Service has released for public comment its draft environmental impact statement on the project. Nothing but a public outcry will protect the wildlife of North Kuiu Island and the traditional uses of the Tlingit people who depend on it.  We’ve included a sample letter and contact information for the agency. Remember, the deadline for comments is Monday, March 20!

Contact Information

Regular mail: Kris Rutledge, Team Leader

              Attn: Kuiu Timber Sale

              USDA Forest Service

              P.O. Box 1328

              Petersburg, AK 99833

Email: Comments-alaska-tongass-petersburg@fs.fed.us

Sample letter

(Subject line must read: Kuiu Timber Sale)

Dear Ms. Rutledge:

I urge you to cancel the proposed Kuiu Timber Sale immediately. Please halt all sale preparations and cease any further plans to log or build roads on North Kuiu Island.

North Kuiu Island is already heavily logged and roaded and clearcutting and building more roads within remnant wildlife habitat will bring further, and irreparable, harm to the cultural traditions of the local Tlingit people.  It is not in the best interests of our nation.

You are logging America’s rainforest under a deeply flawed forest plan and that is costing taxpayers millions of dollars.  I urge you to end those losses now.