May 22, 2006 - House Votes to End Tongass Subsidy

Thanks to bipartisan efforts in the House of Representatives and the dedicated work of countless folks and businesses in Southeast Alaska as well as throughout the lower 48, a vote to end taxpayer subsidies of logging roads in the Tongass National Forest passed on May 18. The amendment to the Interior Appropriations bill, sponsored by Republican Representative Steve Chabot of Ohio and Democrat Robert Andrews of New Jersey, won by a count of 237 to 181 and is supported by a broad coalition of local businesses, citizens, and conservation groups.

“This is a clear and major step towards conserving this incredible rainforest and preserving the benefits it provides to the quality of life for us that live here as well as a step towards the multiple use mandate the Forest Service is required by law to subscribe to,” says Gregory Vickrey of the Tongass Conservation Society. “Businesses that depend on the Tongass related to tourism, commercial and sport fishing, and sport hunting won today. Subsistence users won today. Taxpayers won today. All of us who enjoy this great ecosystem won today.”

The bill will next go to the Senate, and one can reason that if passed, the Forest Service will be better equipped to fund programs related to tourism planning, cabin and trail building and maintenance, and fish and habitat restoration – all of which are woefully under-funded historically, even though the latest statistics for the State demonstrate tremendous growth and opportunity in these areas as follows: top^