Policy and Legislation

A Big Win For America's Rainforest, And Your Wallet

In Brief: America's largest temperate rainforest has finally been given a break. This is good news for your wallet too...

Forest in the Tongass National Forest

Photo by SEACC

The Tongass National Forest in Alaska is America's largest, untouched, old-growth, temperate rainforest, and provides rare natural habitat for bald eagles, grizzly and black bears, salmon, wolves, and other wildlife. This pristine landscape is considered to be the crown jewel of America's national forest system.

For decades, taxpayers have been footing the multi-million dollar bill for logging in the Tongass. But on June 26, 2007, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to stop charging taxpayers millions of dollars to subsidize the environmentally damaging, money losing logging projects in the Tongass National Forest. With a definitive 237 to 181 vote, the House approved an amendment to the Interior-EPA Appropriations Bill that bars construction of taxpayer-subsidized logging roads in the Tongass. The amendment was successfully offered by Representatives Steve Chabot (R-OH) and Rob Andrews (D-NJ).

• Find out if your representative supported this important amendment (A YES vote is a pro-environment vote).

This vote is an important victory for all Americans who care about protecting our nation's natural heritage.

Background

Since 1982, the U.S. Forest Service has wasted $1 billion in taxpayer money -- losing an average of $40 million a year -- by subsidizing the Tongass timber program. One recent Tongass road project cost taxpayers $2.5 million, while the private company using the road to log paid just $52,467 to the U.S. Treasury for the trees it cut. In 2005, the Forest Service spent $48.5 million on Tongass logging roads, only to receive $500,000 in timber sale receipts.

The Forest Service estimates that 90-95 percent of Tongass timber sales are unprofitable. In the past several years, markets for timber in the Tongass National Forest have become increasingly weak, leaving many timber contracts without a bid. In fact, the Forest Service doesn't even wait for a timber company to buy a sale before they use taxpayer dollars to carve roads into the rainforest. Increasingly, the agency has been using taxpayer dollars to build roads into potential timber sale areas before the trees are even offered for sale, long before the timber company purchases the right to log. Most of the "preroaded" sales still fail to receive more than one bid, leaving taxpayers holding the tab for building roads to timber sales no one wants. And even when the sales do go through, the Forest Service's bargain basement prices fail to cover costs.

Editorial boards, pro-taxpayer groups, environmental organizations, and sportsmen's clubs around the nation all supported the Chabot-Andrews amendment. In addition, more than 100 small businesses and companies located in Southeast Alaska have weighed in to support stopping the Tongass logging subsidies. The growing recreation, tourism, commercial and sport fishing, hunting, and traditional food gathering economies provide many more jobs than the Tongass timber industry does:

• In 2004, there were 586 people in the scenic and sightseeing industry, 1,450 people in seafood processing, and 1,964 active fishermen (not including crew members). That's over 4,000 jobs that depend on the Tongass.
• In contrast, in 2004, there were approximately 300 Tongass timber-related jobs.
• Consequently, taxpayer subsidies per Tongass timber job have risen to over $150,000.

At 17 million acres, the Tongass National Forest is our country's largest national forest and the world's largest intact coastal temperate rainforest. Unlike most national forests, it still contains many undisturbed watersheds with a full complement of native species, including bald eagles, wolves, brown bears, and five species of Pacific salmon. The pristine forest and clean waters attract hunters, fishermen, and tourists from around the world. America's Rainforest

What's Next

The Senate has not yet taken a vote on the Interior-EPA Appropriations Bill and has been slow to realize the cost savings and environmental and economic benefits of ending taxpayer subsidized roadbuilding in the Tongass National Forest.  The Senate is likely to pass many spending bills at once in a large omnibus package this fall.  Earthjustice will continue to work hard to increase support for the Tongass amendment r-EPA Appropriations bill, and advocate that the conference committee tasked with ironing out differences between the two chambers keeps the House-passed language, and the Tongass, intact.