The Tongass National Forest is our home.
The public lands of the Tongass are important for all Americans, but they’re essential for those of us who live here. This is where our families hunt, fish, gather food, and work on the land in ways that just aren't possible anywhere else in the country.
But Senator Murkowski wants to privatize it.
Senator Murkowski has introduced a suite of devastating bills that would:
- Roll back the 2016 Tongass Plan Amendment and ramp up old growth clearcut logging in our forests;
- Repeal the Roadless Rule in Alaska. This would put intact stands of important old growth habitat at risk of clearcutting, threaten crucial salmon and wildlife habitat, and burden taxpayers with the exorbitant cost of roadbuilding in these remote areas;
- Require the government to buy back degraded lands from corporations that clearcut the forest;
- Require the Forest Service to trade worthless gravel and rock beneath clearcut land for pristine forests with high value timber and very high value rare-earth metal mining rights;
- Bypass the normal process of appraisal and result in a major loss for taxpayers and the American public;
- Privatize thousands of acres of the Tongass National Forest.
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Showing 68 reactions
You must not privatize the public lands in the Tongass and open them to logging. It is a short sited decision that is morally incorrect and is going to have devastating effects on the ecology and landscape of the Tongass. Clear cutting causes land slides, especially in places that receive as much rain as the Tongass. Please back away from the Tongass and leave it public. Have conscience please and do the right thing, leave the Tongass public and do not open it to logging.
Sincerely,
John Crawford
I emplore you to reconsider this plan to privatize the Tongass Forest and repeal the Roadless Rule – this would be a terrible mistake. Please save this highly sensitive ecosystem from the perils of habitat destruction that are certain to follow these changes. This forest best serves the long-term needs of Alaska and he United States as an in-tact, preserved forest. Don’t be shortsighted. Don’t rob the future children of this unique resource!
Kind Regards,
Jennifer Dever
Concerned citizen of the USA
I emplore you to reconsider this plan to privatize the Tongass Forest and repeal the Roadless Rule – this would be a terrible mistake. Please save this highly sensitive ecosystem from the perils of habitat destruction that are certain to follow these changes. This forest best serves the long-term needs of Alaska and he United States as an in-tact, preserved forest. Don’t be shortsighted. Don’t rob the future children of this unique resource!
Kind Regards,
Jennifer Dever
Concerned citizen of the USA
My husband and I live in Arizona, but we have made repeated trips to the magnificent waterways of the Tongass National Forest in coastal Southeast Alaska.
We have spent a lot of money on these trips to SE Alaska, and virtually all that money was spent on Alaska-owned transportation companies, and in the communities of SE Alaska.
Therefore we were dumbfounded to learn that Alaska’s own senator would be proposing the further degradation of the forests of Tongass National Forest by allowing increased privatization of the Tongass, and increased clearcutting at taxpayer expense.
This cannot be in the long-term interest of the citizens of SE Alaska, who depend heavily on tourist money. I can certainly say that the further trips we were already planning to SE Alaska would be affected by this kind of short-sighted activity.
Please reconsider.
Thanks,
Pearl Mast
Please do the right thing for the Tongass and withdraw your amendments to the budget bill which would severely affect your constituents in Southeast Alaska. We depend on this magnificent land for our physical and emotional nourishment and need to protect one of the few old growth forests in America.
Sincerely,
Joan McBeen
PO Box 23
Tenakee Springs, AK 99841.
I am sixteen years old and I live in Sitka, Alaska. My family puts a huge priority in subsistence living and most of the protein I’ve ever eaten is from the forest and the surrounding waters.
I have spent so much time in old growth forest. It has helped shape who I am and it is incredibly important to me to see this forest preserved. I want my children and grandchildren to experience old growth forest.
I am wholly opposed to any rollbacks to Tongass preservation. I am also wholly opposed to Tongass land privatization. I want to see this amazing forest to stay untouched for generations. I am sure that Tongass land privatization and rollbacks of preservation measures will not help the Tongass.
Think about the legacy that you will be leaving. Do you want our kids and grandkids to like you for preserving the Tongass or despise you for promoting logging?
Furthermore, my generation is going to be of voting age soon, and we don’t like logging. We go for preservation. We won’t vote for pro-logging Senators and Representatives and they will not stay in power.
Please consider my thoughts. Reconsider your views on this issue.
Thank you. Blake LaPerriere
I understand your desire to bring jobs and livelihoods to your constituents through use of the Tongass. However, I encourage you to strongly reconsider your position. I lived in Kake, Alaska last summer, and saw the legacy of timber harvests across Kupreanof- large swaths of forest cut and barely any healthy new growth, 30 years on. People need a livelihood built on sustainability and cooperation with the natural world, not simply degradation and destruction. Alaskan’s pride ourselves on our state’s iconic beauty- it has become a cultural value in itself- one that should be shared with the world through tourism. Not only that, but the public lands you wish to privatize provide food, cultural value, and recreational opportunities for thousands of Alaskans. This is to say nothing of the inherent value of undisturbed landscapes. PLEASE find it in your heart to value places, people, our world for something other than its ability to exchange for dollars. You may feel it in the best interest of those you represent, but in changing legislation protecting the Tongass you are robbing those you seek to support of a resource unmatched for in its cultural significance, and potential as a tool for education and empowerment. RECONSIDER!!!
Sincerely,
Ann Robinson
Here we are again with another important subject on our plate. The protection of the Tongass is not just an Alaskan concern. It is a worldwide concern. We are all aware that radioactive water is pouring into the Pacific Ocean at an alarming rate with no end in sight. We are also aware that our own Navy is conducting testing in the Gulf of Alaska which threatens the same Pacific Ocean and the life within and nearby.. We are aware of an island of plastic floating around in that same ocean, dead zones, ocean acidification, and I could go on. But the point is that we here in Alaska must take a stand because these problems will not go away on their own & if we are to survive and thrive on this magnificent earth, there is no time to waste. The Tongass is big, a big source of oxygen and a big carbon remover.. Please protect our Tongass with its awesome , unparalleled old growth trees. They have a job to do and you have a job to do. Our lives depend on them and you.
Thank-you. Please protect and listen to your Alaskan constituents, including the ones who are too young to write you but who breathe to live. Ginny Olney SITKA