In Friday’s Empire, an A1 news report links an aggressive group of pro-developers; the Juneau Chamber of Commerce, Attorney James Clark, and First Things First President Neil MacKinnon, who together would attempt to overturn Federal District Court Judge Sedwick’s most recent decision of reinstating the Tongass National Forest roadless rule. This concerted attempt, if successful, would most seriously and adversely impact the natural integrity of the Tongass National Forest.

Fortunately, on the conservation side of this roadless rule stands the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council along with literally thousands of private U.S. citizens who own individual subsistence and sustainability rights to this forest and who only hope their loud cries of alarm might bring even further notice to the fact that the Tongass National Forest represents a very major part of what all Alaskans have left of Alaska’s great northern frontier — this along with other vast parts of which are already commonly referred to as a North American Serengeti plain.

In Southeast Alaska, the verdant, mountainous and still wild landscape of the Tongass National Forest can only be described in a very similar manner. However, it continuously mystifies me how it is that various pro-development groups can wish to collect money and unify and to seemingly undermine such a truly natural national treasure — but for what pretense exactly?

Alan R. Munro

Juneau