Alaska’s protected areas

For most of Bush’s presidency, there has been some debate over what should be done with protected forests in Alaska.  Conservationists would like to protect these areas to maintain wildlife habitats and keep roads from being built for loggers.  Other interest groups would like to see increased opportunities for logging and for oil drilling to help these industries and some say, support communities whose economy relies on these jobs.

 According to a Natural Resources Defense Council press release, “The Bush administration’s just-released management plan for the Tongass National Forest in Alaska puts millions of pristine acres in this ancient rainforest on the auction block to the timber industry, yet will raise no revenue for the U.S. government, as the U.S. taxpayers themselves will have to pay to build the roads the timber companies need to access the forest. The Tongass is the largest national forest in the country.”

 According to an article in the L.A. Times, “At 17 million acres, roughly the size of West Virginia, the Tongass National Forest in southeastern Alaska is the country’s largest national forest and the world’s largest intact coastal temperate rain forest. It contains grizzly and black bears, wolves, eagles and five species of wild Alaskan salmon.

Under the new plan, about 3.4 million acres of the forest would be open to logging and development. Of this acreage, about 2.4 million is in roadless areas, and about 663,000 acres is considered to have trees valuable for timber production.”

This post is to provide a little background on a complex issue, that I will continue to address in future posts. 

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