Abandon new Tongass management plan? Timber says yes, tribes say no ahead of meetings next week
- Mark Sabbatini
- 11 hours ago
- 4 min read
AFA hopes Trump administration allows full harvest of old-growth trees in current plan; Tlingit and Haida expresses concern about impacts on ecosystem, other industries
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Independent
Two meetings next week between U.S. Forest Service leadership and timber industry representatives in Southeast Alaska are raising concerns among tribal and other officials about the possibility a years-long revision of the management plan for the Tongass National Forest will be halted by the Trump administration.
At least one additional meeting is now planned next week because of those concerns, scheduled next Friday in Juneau between Forest Service leaders and members of the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, according to officials.
A request to halt work on the revised plan is being made by the Alaska Forest Association, which states less than 10% of old-growth trees allotted to the timber industry in a 2016 revision of the plan have actually been authorized for harvest. The allocation of 430 million board feet (mmbf) was intended to support a 15-year industry transition to harvesting new-growth trees, according to AFA.
Sarah Dahlstrom, AFA’s board president, said in an interview Wednesday timber officials also want to discuss President Donald Trump’s executive order eliminating regulations that prohibit maximum utilization of Alaska‘s natural resources and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins’ directive to repeal the Roadless Rule.
"We're going to discuss how the Forest Service has been implementing their executive orders and secretary memos from the president and from Secretary Rollins — that's the first thing we're going to discuss — and see some of the forest health concerns that our industry has seen out in the woods," she said. "And then they're actually going to come and tour the small businesses, the operations that are unique to the Tongass, and then check out supply and market needs in Southeast Alaska."
A list of questions about the meetings sent to a Tongass National Forest spokesperson by the Juneau Independent at midday Wednesday did not receive a reply by Thursday morning.
The latest revision to the Tongass Land Management Plan began in 2023, with the Forest Service issuing a draft "biography" in February of this year profiling the forest’s health and uses from a wide range of perspectives including industrial, environmental, tribal and other entities. An official timeline calls for further review of a proposed draft revision before it is implemented in 2027.
However, the Trump administration has drastically altered environmental policies and directives since the beginning of his second term, including removing references to and policies involving climate change from federal government agencies. The Tongass draft assessment report released in February, totalling more than 800 pages, references climate change extensively.
AFA, in a Nov. 4 letter to U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz, states the industry organization "believes it is imperative that the USFS immediately halt the Plan Revision process."
"AFA is gravely concerned that there is a fundamental bias in the development of the Plan revision that is opposed to the harvest of old growth (OG) timber by any operators larger than small, person-use and ‘micro’ components of the industry," the letter signed by Dahlstrom states. "These small mill operators have also indicated they rely on OG and do not currently have the supply they require."
Dahlstrom said regional Forest Service officials have stalled old-growth timber sales specified in the 2016 update, making the stated 15-year transition plan a fallacy. For that reason she stated AFA is also seeking to ensure "planning activities for the Tongass are overseen and directed by leadership outside the region."
"Without a commitment to continue to supply OG for pianos, guitars, external finishing wood products, garage doors, cultural woods, science, space and national defense applications, and local products being produced by small micro-operators, the industry will not ‘transition’ it will simply disappear," the letter states.
AFA also filed a lawsuit in March against the U.S. Department of Agriculture in an effort to cut more old-growth timber.
A response to AFA’s request to halt the revision to the Tongass management plan is detailed in a Nov 26 letter to Schultz by Tlingit and Haida President Chalyee Éesh Richard Peterson. It states AFA is seeking "to preserve a status quo built on an outdated Forest Plan — one developed under ecological, political, and management assumptions that no longer reflect the realities of the Tongass (or) the needs of its people."
"The current plan continues to favor industrial timber interests even though timber now represents less than 1% of regional jobs and earnings, while sectors dependent on healthy forests, salmon, and intact ecosystems, such as tourism, subsistence, and commercial fishing, drive the regional economy," Peterson’s letter states.
Forest Service leaders are scheduled to meet with AFA representatives in Ketchikan on Monday and with timber company workers on Prince of Wales Island afterward, Dahlstrom said. She declined to state specifically who will be participating in those meetings.
A Forest Service meeting in Juneau with Tlingit and Haida officials to discuss the issues raised in Peterson’s letter is scheduled in Juneau next Friday, said Jacqueline Pata, the tribal council’s first vice president, during a Dec. 4 executive council meeting.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
