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Tongass National Forest Needs Your Help
The Tongass National Forest in Alaska is the nation’s largest, a national treasure that is indispensable to salmon fishermen, hunters, native cultures and local economies. This forest has an extraordinary landscape of fiords, glaciers, big trees and mountains that provide habitat for bald eagles, black and brown bears, and so much more.
Within the next week, Congress will consider an amendment to prohibit taxpayer dollars from being used to build new logging roads in the Tongass. If their amendment passes, it would eliminate yet another government subsidy and protect the Tongass from further logging. You can help by asking your Representatives to vote for the Chabot/Andrews amendment.
| Sample Letter for Campaign |
Subject: Tongass National Forest
Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,
As a taxpayer, I'm writing to urge you to help end the waste of millions of taxpayer dollars on road building and logging in America's rainforest. In 2004, Forest Service records show that taxpayers lost nearly $48 million on the logging program in the Tongass National Forest in Alaska. Since 1982, the Forest Service has wasted nearly $1 billion taxpayer dollars to clearcut America's rainforest.
Considering the current economic climate, it is critically important to spend our tax dollars conscientiously. Therefore, it is simply wasteful for the federal government to spend tens of millions of our tax dollars subsidizing the timber industry on the Tongass while damaging a national treasure valued by hunters, fishermen, local native cultures and tourists from around the world.
The Tongass National Forest is the largest intact temperate rainforest in the world where you can find all five species of wild salmon, old growth forest, wolves, bears, Bald Eagles, and other wild treasures that have disappeared from much of the American landscape.
I urge you to support Mr. Chabot and Mr. Andrews' Tongass subsidy amendment to end taxpayer-subsidized logging in the Tongass National Forest
I look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
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Campaign Launched:
May 08, 2006
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The Tongass National Forest in Alaska is the nation’s largest, a national treasure that is indispensable to salmon fishermen, hunters, native cultures and local economies in southeast Alaska. This forest has an extraordinary landscape of fiords, glaciers, big trees and mountains that provide habitat for bald eagles, black and brown bears, all five species of wild salmon, and so much more. At 17 million acres, the Tongass is the largest intact temperate rainforest in the world. Yet the Bush Administration is determined to log old growth in this ancient forest where many trees are hundreds of years old -- meanwhile costing American taxpayers millions of dollars.
The Tongass has suffered destruction commensurate with its size. During the last half-century, the Alaska timber industry has logged over a million acres of phenomenal old growth forest in Southeast Alaska, around half from National Forests, half from state and native corporation lands. What remains of the old-growth forest is critical to sustaining the remarkable wildlife of the Tongass. In addition, over 5,000 miles of roads crisscross the Tongass, and the Forest Service has plans to build over 1,000 additional miles of roads; and Americans will be left to foot the bill again to the tune of around $40 million per year. Since when did it become the responsibility of America’s tax-payers to subsidize the clearcutting of America’s Rainforest?
The Bush Administration is intent on logging what is left of the biggest and best trees, the biological heart of the Tongass.
At a time when the government is running huge budget deficits, this logging plan is a travesty.
Enough of the Subsidy
That's just one reason why there's a healthy bipartisan group in Congress that want to do away with the Tongass subsidy. They'll get a chance to vote when Rep. Chabot and Rep. Andrews offer their amendment, the Tongass Subsidy Amendment, to the FY 2007 Interior Appropriations bill as early as this week. The amendment would prohibit the Forest Service from spending any money on new logging roads inside the Tongass.
If the President and Congress are serious about cutting government waste, the subsidy to the logging industry in Alaska is a good place to start. It should not be the responsibility of American taxpayers to foot the bill to clearcut America's rainforest. American taxpayers deserve better and so does the Tongass National Forest.
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