May 18, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Aurah Landau,
Alaska Coalition, (907) 723-0241,
[log in to unmask]
US House Votes to Limit Tongass Roads to Nowhere
Subsidies
Taxpayers and America’s Rainforest in Alaska
Protected
WASHINGTON
– In a stunning bipartisan effort, today the House of Representatives voted to
limit money to build logging roads in the Tongass National
Forest. The amendment to the FY2007 Interior
Appropriations bill, sponsored by Reps. Steve Chabot (R-OH) and Robert Andrews
(D-NJ), won by a vote of 237 to 181. The amendment is supported by a broad
coalition of taxpayer and budget watchdog groups, sportsmen and
conservationists.
“This is a major step toward saving our last great rainforest and saving
taxpayer money as well,” said Caitlin Hills, Legislative Director with the
Alaska Rainforest Campaign. “The
Tongass is home to one of the government's most ridiculous subsidies, with tens
of millions spent on each year on roads that go nowhere. With the
government running huge budget deficits, members of Congress from both parties
realized its good business to stop the colossal waste of tax dollars in the
Tongass.”
Subsidized roads used to log the Tongass National
Forest have cost American taxpayers millions – in
2005 alone, the Forest Service spent $48.5 million on the Tongass logging
program and received only $500,000 in revenue. Over the past two decades, losses
have reached roughly $1 billion. One recent Tongass road project cost
taxpayers $2.9 million, though the private company using the road to log
only paid the treasury $107,000 for the trees it cut.
“The Tongass is the crown jewel of the National Forest system,” said
Aurah Landau, spokeswoman for the Alaska Coalition. “This is a terrific victory
for America’s Rainforest and
America’s taxpayers.”
Yesterday’s vote comes at a time when the Tongass
is under increased threat. Currently the Forest Service is moving forward with
about 100 timber projects in the Tongass National
Forest. Until December 2003, about 50 of these were
protected from commercial logging under the Roadless Rule.
“The leadership provided by Reps. Chabot and
Andrews was invaluable,” said Cindy Shogan, Executive Director of the Alaska
Wilderness League. “Americans and Tongass wildlife owe them a huge
thanks.”
The victory is especially significant because the
Forest Service has recently been caught using federal money to build Tongass
roads illegally. In addition, the agency has been managing the Tongass under an
illegal forest plan that needlessly doubled logging and road building levels.
Those errors are at the heart of the perennial taxpayer losses.
The Tongass
National Forest is part of
the world’s last intact temperate rainforest. Centuries-old trees provide
critical habitat for wolves, grizzly bears, wild salmon, bald eagles and other
wildlife that have disappeared from many other parts of the country. During the
last 45 years, the Alaska timber industry has
logged over 1 million acres of Southeast
Alaska’s old-growth forest and built over 5000 miles of logging
roads in the Tongass.
###