Voices for the Tongass

As the once-protected Tongass National Forest is opened up to disturbances like logging, tribes and environmental groups speak out.

By Nicholas Baca

March 21, 2021

The Planet acknowledges that this story is deeply rooted in the ancestral homelands of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian Tribes who have lived around the Tongass National Forest from Time Immemorial. We would like to express our deepest respect and gratitude for their enduring care and protection of this land.

Tucked in the forested southeast corner of Alaska, generations of tribal communities have lived off the land for centuries. Now, a controversial legal battle is underway.

The Tongass National Forest is home to First Nations Tribes like the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian. The largest and northernmost rainforest, it is also home to a fragile ecosystem. Scattered over fjords, islands and mountain tops, this unique landscape lays in the hands of agencies, local and Indigenous communities and advocacy groups as decade-old protections are at stake.

The Clinton-era rule meant to protect national forests is known as the Roadless Rule, which went into effect in the Tongass in 2001. It’s intended to safeguard forests around the country against logging and the creation of roads.

In October 2020 under the Trump administration, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) stripped Roadless Rule protections from almost 3.8 million hectares of the Tongass National Forest. This means roughly 55% of the Tongass will be open for development like logging and road construction.

This administrative action sparked a lawsuit from five Indigenous communities and numerous conservation groups aimed at restoring these protections. Earthjustice, a non-profit that specializes in environmental legal cases, and the Natural Resources Defense Council, a non-profit focused on environmental advocacy, filed the lawsuit on Dec. 23.

Many administrations have left their mark on mining, logging and development rules in the Tongass. In 2003, the Bush administration made a decision to temporarily grant exemption from the Roadless Rule to the Tongass. Earthjustice challenged this ruling in court in 2009 and won.

Joel Jackson, president of the Organized Village of Kake, is heavily involved in the 2020 lawsuit. The Organized Village of Kake is an Indigenous community located 160 km south of Juneau and is home to roughly 500 residents. Almost 70% of the Village’s population is of Tlingit descent.

Indigenous communities in southeast Alaska live off the land; they harvest their medicines and food from the forest itself, Jackson said.

Salmon is one of the highest regarded resources in the forest. The salmon runs in the Tongass produce more wild salmon than all other national forests combined, feeding humans as well as over 50 species within the Tongass.

“To fully exempt our ancestral lands from protections will do significant harm to present and future generations and is a slap in the face of Indigenous people,” Jackson wrote in a column in the Cordova Timesnewspaper.

Ian Johnson, environmental coordinator for The Hoonah Indian Association (HIA), also has concerns about opening up the Tongass. The HIA is located in Hoonah, Alaska, a 40-mile plane or boat ride west of Juneau.

Over the past year and a half, Johnson has been examining the effects of the Roadless Rule exemption as part of a team providing the USDA with input on the issue.

“Large-scale clear cutting of the Tongass was not sustainable,” Johnson said. The specific impacts to the Hoonah are hard to identify because the Roadless Rule exemption simply lifts restrictions but does not schedule future plans, Johnson said.

Being an old growth forest, some ancient trees in the Tongass are over 800 years old, according to the Audubon Society. Old growth forests can support an immense amount of biodiversity, rejuvenate soils to a healthy state and protect natural waterways.

“Ancient trees in the Tongass forest know our ancestors’ and current communities’ names,” Jackson said in the Cordova column. Jackson and other Indigenous communities are fearful of what will happen if clear-cutting and increased logging were to begin in the Tongass, Jackson said.

The final ruling from October 2020 opened about 76,000 forested hectares to timber harvest. A majority of that timber is old growth, according to the USDA.

Trees take in carbon through their roots, grasses digest it and even soils hold on to it like a sponge. The Tongass National Forest soaks up nearly 8% of the carbon produced by the United States and it carries roughly 0.25% of all the carbon stored in forests globally, according to a 2006 study.

For Earthjustice, old growth forests and their ability to absorb greenhouse gases are reasons the Tongass is worth protecting. Stronger protections are needed so Native voices and perspectives can be heard over the needs of profit-driven companies, said Kate Glover, staff attorney for Earthjustice.

“The Forest Service’s decision to undo the Roadless Rule in the Tongass was made in violation of federal laws and regulations,” Glover wrote in an email. “It failed to properly consider the impact this would have on subsistence uses, and failed to consider reasonable alternatives.”

The current lawsuit has been put on hold during the transition between the Trump and Biden administrations, Glover said. As Biden takes over, Earthjustice remains hopeful that the USDA and the Forest Service will uphold strong commitments to address climate change.

State representatives Lisa Murkowski (R) and Dan Sullivan (R) oppose the Roadless Rule and push for the Tongass’s exemption.

In a press release from the Alaska State Legislature in 2019, Senator Bert Stedman (R) and Senate President Cathy Giessel (R) applauded the USDA when they announced they were looking to exclude the Tongass from the Roadless Rule.

“This will be beneficial to extend the life of the timber industry,” said Sen. Stedman in a press release. Sen. Giessel feels confident in Alaska’s ability to regulate these areas while benefiting all people, she said in the same press release.

Congressional Democrats from Arizona and Washington state continue to push for the reinstatement of the Roadless Rule in the Tongass as well as in forests within their own states.

The Tenakee Logging Company, a small Alaskan business, has started to explore different logging methods to manage the Tongass. Rather than clear-cutting major portions, the business has a minimal-impact approach to timber harvesting.

The key is knowing how to use the resources the forest provides without destroying them, according to Gordon Chew, father in the father-son business. By cutting down one tree at a time in various spots throughout the forest, room is made for new trees and plants which ensures a healthy ecosystem.

Native peoples have lived in this area for around 10,000 years. The Tongass is their ancestral homeland, Jackson said. In Jackson’s eyes, the federal government has ignored the voices and opinions of those who live in and know the Tongass.

For the Organized Village of Kake, the bottom line is respect.

“We do not wish to withdraw our expertise, to abandon our place at the table, but it has been obvious that the table has already been set, the meal has already been eaten, and we were not invited to partake,” Jackson said in the Cordova Times column.

Nicholas Baca is a senior environmental journalism student at Huxley College. His interest in human-nature ecosystems and conservation drive his passion for telling stories.