Tongass National Forest

Tongass National Forest
IUCN Category VI (Managed Resource Protected Area)
Location	Alaska Panhandle, Alaska, U.S.[1]
Coordinates	56°45′0″N 133°0′0″W / 56.75°N 133°W / 56.75; -133Coordinates: 56°45′0″N 133°0′0″W / 56.75°N 133°W / 56.75; -133
Area	17 million acres (69,000 km²)
Established	September 10, 1907 Established: September 10, 1907
Governing body	U.S. Forest Service

The Tongass National Forest

At 17 million acres (69,000 km²), the Tongass National Forest (pronounced /ˈtɒŋɡəs/, officially the Tongass/Stikine National Forest^[2]) in southeastern Alaska is the largest national forest in the United States. Most of its area is part of the temperate rain forest WWF ecoregion, itself part of the larger Pacific temperate rain forest WWF ecoregion, and is remote enough to be home to many species of endangered and rare flora and fauna. Tongass encompasses islands of the Alexander Archipelago, fjords, glaciers, and peaks of the Coast Mountains. An international border with Canada (British Columbia) runs along the crest of the Boundary Ranges of the Coast Mountains (see also: Alaska boundary dispute). The forest is administered from Forest Service offices in Ketchikan. There are local ranger district offices located in Craig, Hoonah, Juneau, Petersburg, Sitka, Thorne Bay, Wrangell, and Yakutat.^[3] In July 2009, the Obama Administration approved clearcut logging in the remaining old growth forests of the Tongass.^[4]

History

The Alexander Archipelago Forest Reserve was established by Theodore Roosevelt in a presidential proclamation of 20 August 1902. Another presidential proclamation made by Roosevelt, on 10 September 1907, created the Tongass National Forest. On 1 July 1908, the two forests were joined, with the combined forest area encompassing most of southeast Alaska. Further presidential proclamations of 16 February 1909 (in the last months of the Roosevelt administration) and 10 June, and in 1925 (by Calvin Coolidge) expanded the National Forest. An early supervisor of the forest was William Alexander Langille.^[5]

Description

The Tongass National Forest is home to about 75,000 people who are dependent on the land for their livelihoods. Several Alaska Native tribes live throughout Southeast Alaska, such as the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian. 31 communities are located within the forest; the largest is Juneau, the state capital, with a population of 31,000. The forest is named for the Tongass group of the Tlingit people, who inhabited the southernmost areas of the Alaska panhandle near what is now Ketchikan.

Ecology

Misty Fjords Waterfall and kayak

Along with a region of the Central and North Coast regions of British Columbia designated by environmental groups as the Great Bear Rainforest, Tongass is part of the "perhumid rainforest zone," and the forest is primarily made up of western red cedar, sitka spruce, and western hemlock. Tongass is Earth's largest remaining temperate rainforest^[6]. The terrain underlying Tongass is divided between karst (limestone rock, well-drained soil, and many caves), and granite (poorly-drained soil).

Unique and protected creatures seldom found anywhere else in North America inhabit the thousands of islands along the Alaska coast. Five species of salmon, brown and black bear, and Bald eagles abound throughout the forest.

Though its land area is huge, about 40% of the Tongass is composed of wetlands, snow, ice, rock, and non-forest vegetation, while the remaining 10 million acres (40,000 km²) are forested. About 5 million acres (20,000 km²) are considered “productive old-growth”, and 4,500,000 acres (18,200 km²) of those are preserved as wilderness areas.^[7]

Historically, logging operations tended to concentrate on lower elevation, bigger tree ecosystems for harvesting; at present, approximately 78% of the land remains intact, i.e. 383,000 acres (1,550 km²) out of 491,000 acres (1,990 km²) original big tree, low elevation forest area. Given the high value of these areas for wildlife species, close to 70% of this big-tree old growth forest is protected in reserves, and will never be eligible for harvest.^[8]

Of all of the big-tree old growth on the forest, including both low and higher elevation areas, no more than 11% of the remaining area will ever be harvested. Of the 5,700,000 acres (23,100 km²) “productive old-growth” on the Forest, 676,000 acres (2,740 km²), or 12% of the old-growth on the Forest, are slated for harvest over the next 10 years.^[8]

Wilderness areas

There are 19 designated wilderness areas within the Tongass National Forest, more than in any other National Forest. They contain over 5.75-million acres of territory,^[9] also more than any other. From largest to smallest they are:

Note: There are three other wilderness areas within the Alaska Panhandle region that are not part of Tongass National Forest, but are administered by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service as part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. From largest to smallest they are the Forrester Island Wilderness, the Saint Lazaria Wilderness, and the Hazy Islands Wilderness. Also in the Panhandle, but not in Tongass National Forest, are the Glacier Bay Wilderness and a small part of the Wrangell-Saint Elias Wilderness, which are both administered by the National Park Service.

Recreation

The Tongass National Forest offers outstanding recreation opportunies, many of which are only found in Alaska. The forest has close to one million visitors each year. Most come by cruise ship sailing through the Inside Passage of Southeast Alaska. The Forest Service provides forest interpreters and visitor programs at Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center in Juneau, the Discovery Center in Ketchikan and forest interpreters on the state Marine Highway ferry system in Southeast Alaska. The Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center was the first US Forest Service visitor center built in the nation, in 1963. The forest interpretive program on the state ferries began in the summer of 1968, making it the longest running naturalist program in the agency.

There are approximately 150 rustic public recreation cabins for rent across the Tongass in remote locations, reachable by trail boat or floatplane. Many are fully accessible. There are 15 campgrounds across the forest, many in spectacular settings with views of a glacier and bald eagles. Six campgrounds offer advance reservations.

In addition, there are several spectacular bear viewing areas on the forest. The southern most site is in Hyder, Alaska. You can drive to Hyder through British Columbia. The Fish Creek site is open from mid-July through September for a small permit fee. Both black and brown bears can be seen in safety from an elevated viewing platform and boardwalk. Forest staff are on site to provide safety and answer questions. The Anan Bear Viewing area is only reachable by boat from Wrangell. Both black and brown bears are seen from early July through August. There is an extensive viewing platform and deck above the river for viewing in safety. A day pass is required before visiting the site. Pack Creek Bear Viewing area on Admiralty Island National Monument is a 30-minute floatplane trip from Juneau. Brown bear viewing occurs from June through September. The original bear viewing platform was built by the CCC Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930's. Today Forest Service and State Dept of Fish and Game staff live on site in summer to provide orientation to the area and answer questions. A permit is required to visit the area. In addition, both black and brown bears can be seen along many of the over 100 hiking trails on the Tongass National Forest.

Logging

US FS Map of Tongass National Forest

Timber harvest in Southeast Alaska consisted of individual handlogging operations up until the 1950s, focusing on lowlying areas and beach fringe areas. In the 1950s, in part to aid in Japanese recovery from World War II, the Forest Service set up long-term contracts with two pulp mills: the Ketchikan Pulp Company (KPC) and the Alaska Pulp Company. These contracts were scheduled to last 50 years, and originally intended to complement independent sawlog operations in the region. However, the two companies conspired to drive log prices down, put smaller logging operations out of business, and were major and recalcitrant polluters in their local areas. Ultimately, virtually all timber sales on the Tongass were purchased by one of these two companies.

In 1974, the KPC contract for Northern Prince of Wales was challenged by the Point Baker Association led by Alan Stein, Chuck Zieske and Herb Zieske. Federal District Court Judge Von Der Hydt ruled in their favor in December 1974,^{[citation needed]} enjoining clearcutting of over 150 square miles (390 km²) of the north end of Prince of Wales Island. The suit threatened to halt clearcutting in the United States. In 1976, Congress removed the injunction in passing the National Forest Management Act, a direct response to their law suit.^{[citation needed]} Over half the old growth timber was removed there by the mid 1990s.^{[citation needed]}

An attempt to privatize the northern end of POW on this, our nation's, first national forest will be made by Senators Murkowski and Begich when they attempt to transfer the land to the Sealaska Corporation. ^[10]

Much of the power of these companies lay in the long-term contracts themselves. The contracts guaranteed low prices to the pulp companies — in some cases resulting in trees being given away for "less than the price of a hamburger." The contracts were canceled in 1999, and the pulp mills closed their doors in the early 2000s.^{[citation needed]}

In 2003, an appropriations bill rider required that all timber sales on the Tongass must be positive sales, meaning, no sales could be sold that undervalued the "stumpage" rate, or the value of the trees as established by the marketplace (2008 Appropriations Bill P.L. 110-161, H. Rept. 110-497, Sec. 411). However, the Forest Service also conducts NEPA analyses, layout, and administrative operations to support these sales, and as such, the government does not make a profit overall.^[7] Given the guaranteed low prices during contract days and the continued high cost of logging in Southeast Alaska today, one analysis concludes that, since 1980, the forest service has lost over a billion dollars in Tongass timber sales.^[11] Logging operations are not the only deficit-run programs, however. The Forest Service likens the overall deficit of the timber harvest program to the many other programs the agency operates at a deficit, including trail, cabin, and campground maintenance and subsistence programs.

About 70% of the old growth trees in Tongass have been logged. The karst terrain produces much larger trees and fewer muskeg bogs and has been preferentially logged.^[11]

As of 2008, the forest service has released a new amendment to the Forest Plan for the Tongass Forest.

Roadless controversy

The most controversial logging in the Tongass has involved the roadless areas. Southeast Alaska is an extensive landscape, with communities scattered across the archipelago on different islands, isolated from each other and the mainland road system. The road system that exists in the region is in place because of the resource extraction history in the region, primarily established by the Forest Service to enable timber harvest. Once in place, these roads serve to connect local communities and visitors to recreation, hunting, fishing, and subsistence opportunities long into the future. Essentially, these roads serve to provide essential infrastructure for local communities. However, installing roads in the vast wilderness areas of the Tongass is also a point of controversy for many in the American public, as reflected in the roadless area conservation movement.

The Tongass National Forest was included in the Roadless Initiative passed on 5 January 2001, during the last days of the Bill Clinton Administration, and the initiative prevented the construction of new roads in currently roadless areas of United States national forests.

However, several governors of western states soon joined forces with the timber industry to overturn the roadless policy. The George W. Bush Administration has declined to defend the policy in the courts and the U.S. Forest Service has largely exempted the Tongass from roadless protections.^[12]

In September 2006, a landmark court decision overturned Bush's repeal of the Roadless Rule, reverting to the 2001 roadless area protections established under president Clinton. However, the Tongass remained exempt from that ruling, and it is currently unclear what the fate of its vast roadless areas will be.

In June 2007, U.S. House members added an amendment to the appropriations bill to block federally-funded road building in Tongass National Forest. Proponents of the amendment said that the federal timber program in Tongass is a dead loss for taxpayers, costing some $30 million annually, and noted that the Forest Service faces an estimated $900 million road maintenance backlog in the forest. Supporters of the bipartisan amendment included the Republicans for Environmental Protection. Representative Steve Chabot, an Ohio Republican who sponsored the amendment, said "I am not opposed to logging when it's done on the timber company's dime...But in this case, they are using the American taxpayer to subsidize these 200 jobs at the tune of $200,000 per job. That just makes no sense."^[6]

Native Corporation Lands

Under the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, 632,000 acres (2,560 km²) of the Tongass were selected by SeaAlaska Native Regional Corporations. These lands are therefore not National Forest land, not subject to the protections of Federal Law such as the clean water act and the national forest management act or nepa^[11]

See also

Environment portal

Ecology portal

Earth_sciences portal

• Coeur Alaska, Inc. v. Southeast Alaska Conservation Council
• Fort Tongass
• Tongass Island
• Tongass people
• Tongass Passage
• Tongass Narrows

Notes

1. ^ The given coordinates are for one representative location in the forest near Petersburg, listed in the USGS GNIS. The forest extends from roughly 55 N, 130 W at the southern tip of Alaska to roughly 60 N, 140 W at Yakutat Bay. See the map below.
2. ^ USGS GNIS: Tongass/Stikine National Forest
3. ^ USFS Ranger Districts by State
4. ^ [1]
5. ^ Indian River protection (accessed 2007-04-12).
6. ^ ^{a b} U.S. House Boosts Spending for Environment, Conservation
7. ^ ^{a b} Tongass Forest Management FAQs (accessed 2008-09-18).
8. ^ ^{a b} Tongass National Forest Land Management Plan Final EIS (see tables 3.7-9 and 3.9-12. Accessed 2008-09-18).
9. ^ National Wilderness Areas by State, 14 November 2008 U.S. Forest Service
10. ^ "Alaska Senators re=introduce bill". Forest Policy research. http://forestpolicyresearch.org/2009/02/07/alaska-senators-introduce-same-old-bill-giving-away-80000-acres-of-public-land/. Retrieved 2009-02-14. 
11. ^ ^{a b c} Temperate Rainforests of the North Pacific Coast (accessed 2007-05-16).
12. ^ The Tongass: America's Largest National Forest (accessed 2007-04-12).

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tongass National Forest

• U.S. Forest Service - Tongass National Forest
• A History of the U.S. Forest Service in Alaska
• Tongass Conservation Society
• Southeast Alaska Conservation Council - coalition of local groups working to preserve the Tongass
• Q&A with Kathie Durbin - chronicler of the struggle to preserve the Tongass (book referenced above)
• Temperate Rainforests of the North Pacific Coast
• Audubon Alaska: Tongass National Forest
• [http://forestpolicyresearch.org/2009/02/07/alaska-senators-introduce-same-old-bill-giving-away-80000 acres-of-public-land/

References

• Rakestraw, Lawrence (1981). A History of the United States Forest Service in Alaska. Copyright Lawrence Rakestraw. Printed by the USDA Forest Service in 1982, 1994, 2002. SD565R24, 81-620020
• Durbin, Kathie (1999). Tongass: Pulp Politics and the Fight for the Alaska Rain Forest. Corvallis, Oregon: Oregon State University Press. ISBN 087071466X.
• Ketchum, Robert Glenn (1987). The Tongass: Alaska's Vanishing Rain Forest: The Photographs of Robert Glenn Ketchum. Text by Robert Glenn Ketchum and Carey D. Ketchum; introduction by Roderick Nash. New York, New York: Aperture Foundation. Distributed in the U.S. by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
• List, Peter C., ed. (2000). Environmental Ethics and Forestry: A Reader. Environmental Ethics, Values, and Policy series. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Temple University Press. ISBN 1566397847. ISBN 1566397855.