Forest Service Moves Ahead on the Tonka Timber Sale

TCS, along with Greenpeace, GSACC and Cascadia Wildlands submitted comments on the Tonka timber sale, located on the Lindenburg Peninsula on Kupreanof Island. Despite the points raised, the Forest Service chose Alternative 4, clearcutting 38.5 MMBF.  Units were dropped from the sale that are included in Roadless.

The Lindenburg Peninsula has already been heavily impacted by previous timber sales.  As a result, deer harvests have crashed.  Additional clear cutting will further decrease deer numbers.

The Forest Service is holding community meetings in a show of achieving consensus.  However, community meetings do not satisfy the concerns of stakeholders; true consensus for this particular sale would protections for the Pothole, a protected cove in Wrangell Narrows, home to significant numbers of Dungeness crab.  The Forest Service is applying for a permit that would allow them to store  logs in Pothole. If the State does approve the permit for log storage, crab fishermen will lose an important crab fishing area.

TCS will appeal the Record of Decision.

Tongass Conservation Society’s Position on Senate Bill 730 and House Bill 1408

TCS opposes S 730 and HR 1408, cited as “Southeast Alaska Native Land Entitlement Finalization and Jobs Protection Acts”.  These bills propose to transfer publicly owned lands in the Tongass National Forest to a private company, Sealaska Corp. Sealaska already selected its remaining lands from the agreed upon withdrawal areas in accordance with The Alaska Land Transfer Acceleration Act on June 10, 2008.  We oppose allowing Sealaska Corporation to select lands other than those already selected within the boundaries established under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971.  These outside selections would significantly compromise the unique values of the Tongass National Forest for wildlife habitat, fish propagation and recreational opportunities now available to all Americans. Passage would undermine the Tongass Land Management Plan and the Tongass Transition Framework being developed by the USDA.  S 730 and HR 1408 would authorize an exchange of low value timberland for some of the best fish and wildlife habitat in the United States, if not the world, so Sealaska Corporation can log these areas and ship the unprocessed logs overseas.

Our concern about this threat to the ecological integrity of the Tongass National Forest comes from direct observation of Sealaska’s intensive logging practices (practices that would be illegal on National Forest land) including: clearcutting timber from the alpine edge all the way to the beach without leaving any remnant old-growth stands of trees and leaving inadequate timber buffers along waterways to protect resident and anadromous fish stream habitat. Many of our members make their livelihood from fishing on the waters of the Tongass National Forest.  Still others are in visitor, tourism and outdoor recreation businesses.  S730 and HR 1408 would privatize dozens of undeveloped coves, bays and streams currently publicly accessible for recreational use.  The “enterprise/native futures” sites are poorly defined in these bills, leaving valuable archeological sites of interest to all of humanity at risk of unrestricted eventual development.  For example:  The oldest human remains yet found in North America have been found in the Prince of Wales Island Archipelago, the site of most of Sealaska Corporation’s selections in these bills, and these human remains are not genetically related to the Alaska Native peoples currently residing in Southeast Alaska.

Additional Congressional action is not necessary for the Bureau of Land Management to complete conveyance of Sealaska Corporation land entitlements under ANCSA.  Finalization of these entitlements should be a priority, but TCS does not agree with any proposal that extends beyond the withdrawal areas agreed upon under ANCSA and strongly opposes S730 and HR 1408.

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