A federal judge in Alaska dismissed a timber-industry lawsuit seeking to allow old-growth logging on the Tongass National Forest, the world’s largest temperate old-growth rainforest.
Viking Lumber, Alcan Timber, and the Alaska Forest Association sued the Department of Agriculture in an effort to overturn an Obama-era forest management plan for the Tongass. The lawsuit alleged that the federal Tongass Timber Reform Act of 1990 required the Forest Service to offer enough timber sales to meet market demand. Judge Sharon Gleason disagreed, dismissing the lawsuit.
“Whether the harvest levels are designed to actually meet market demand is a discretionary agency action, not a mandatory requirement imposed by the TTRA on the Forest Service,” she wrote.
The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) intervened against the timber industry in the case. “This ruling is a big victory for the Tongass’ old-growth forests. I’m relieved the court squarely rejected the logging industry’s rash attempt to force large-scale logging,” said CBD attorney Marlee Goska.
The Trump administration is already at work on a new forest management plan that could allow more logging on the Tongass, and FSEEE is filing comments in opposition to parts of the plan that would allow old-growth logging.
Photo: The old-growth forests in the Tongass National Forest supply clean water for important salmon fisheries (photo by Mark Brennan).
