Trump stripped the Tongass National Forest of protections from clear cutting and road building. Tongass is the largest remaining temperate rainforest in the world and key to maintain biodiversity in an era of climate warming, said the Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, who is rolling back the Trump rules. Land transfers have accounted for 43% of forest lost between 2015 and 2020. In early 2001 the Clinton administration added most of the forest to its Roadless Initiative, since then the Tongass has become a political football, with successive administrations attempting to dismantle and restore protections. The economy in southeastern Alaska have moved on from timber harvesting to more sustainable industries like fishing and recreation.
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| clear cutting in Tongass NF; credit AP |
The Tongass has become increasingly important as a carbon sink. About 20% of the carbon sequestered by the National Forest System comes from the Tongass in Alaska, making it the biggest. That amounts to about one and a half times the amount of greenhouse gasses emitted by the Unites States in 2018. To prevent private transfers endangering the forest, legislation is needed insuring its protected status. Last August the House passed the Roadless Area Conservation Act, but the legislation has not received a vote in a Senate gridlocked by the filibuster rule.