"Roadless Rule"

Prior version of the rule have been repeatedly upheld by federal courts, but new U.S. Supreme Court rulings may give opponents new ammunition.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the Tongass is key to conserving biodiversity and addressing the climate crisis, adding that the decision listened to the requests of Alaska Native tribes.

The cornerstone user will be Coeur Alaska’s Kensington mine, a gold producer north of Juneau.

About half of the funding will be managed by tribal and Indigenous organizations, for purposes that include arts and cultural support, enhancement of food security and support for cultural use of forest products.

Southeast Alaska is getting special attention in part because the Biden administration wants to reinstitute the Roadless Rule in the Tongass and end large-scale, old-growth logging.

It has been 21 years since the 2001 Roadless Rule for the Tongass National Forest was first established. For the people involved in the battles between industry and subsistence, the tug-of-war over land use in the Tongass National Forest has been going on even longer. 

The Biden administration on Tuesday formally began the process of restoring ‘Roadless Rule’ protections to millions of acres of Southeast Alaska’s federal forestlands.

On Friday the Biden administration announced Nov. 23 as the start date for its formal process to reinstate the Roadless Rule for the Tongass National Forest.

The practical effect of Thursday’s announcement would be to freeze any remaining old growth timber sales except for those used in small scale salvage projects for cultural use by Alaska Native tribes and others.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has published a regulatory notice that it plans to “repeal or replace” a Trump administration regulation from October that removed Roadless Rule restrictions in the Tongass.