“This national forest runs major commercial timber sales like a cookie jar without a lid.” – Jeff Ruch

If you shake your head and wonder how anyone can cut trees in our current climate crisis, look for who benefits.

“Dru Fenster, a Forest Service spokessperson in Juneau, said the 9.2 million roadless acres on the Tongass include about 4.2 million acres of damp muskeg bogs, alpine lakes, steep-walled fjords, majestic mountains and tidewater glaciers. The remaining 5 million acres contain valuable old-growth trees, including Alaska yellow cedar, western red cedar, mountain hemlock and Sitka spruce, some as old as 1,000 years of age.

“Logging these mature stands could exacerbate climate change as well as cripple Southeast Alaska’s booming recreation and tourism industries, damage a world-class salmon fishing industry and threaten the survival of all kinds of wildlife, not just brown bears.”

Read the whole article here.

Here’s the latest on how the Trump Administration feels about our carbon sequestering trees and you. Hint: we’re all chopped liver!

“‘The Trump administration is trying to stifle the public’s voice and hide environmental damage to public lands,’ said Ted Zukoski, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. ‘These rules would let the Forest Service sidestep bedrock environmental laws. Logging companies could bulldoze hundreds of miles of new roads and chainsaw miles of national forests while ignoring the damage to wildlife and waterways. All of this would happen without involving nearby communities or forest visitors.'”

Read the whole article here.