forestry

Sun shines through the canopy in the Tongass National Forest. (Photo by Brian Logan/U.S. Forest Service)

My Turn: Southeast Alaska’s economy thrives through balance, not timber alone

For 17,000 years, Indigenous people of Southeast Alaska have thrived on these lands

 

Bob Girt works with the Alaska Youth Stewards on Prince of Wales Island in 2022. (Photo courtesy of Bethany Goodrich / Sustainable Southeast Partnership)

Threads of the Tongass: Building a sustainable future

“These students can look back and say, ‘I helped build that. I was a contributor.’”

 

Danial Roberts, an employee at Viking Lumber Company, looks out at lumber from a forklift in Klawock, Alaska. (Courtesy of Viking Lumber Company)

Threads of the Tongass: The future of pianos and the timber industry

Timber operators say they are in crisis and unique knowledge, products will be lost

 

The Craig Tribal Association visits the Tongass National Forest to harvest a cultural tree in April of 2024. (U.S. Forest Service photo)

Reviews range widely to Forest Service’s draft ‘biography’ of Tongass as part of management plan update

Comment period ends Monday for assessment of forest — but will plan’s direction change under Trump?

The Craig Tribal Association visits the Tongass National Forest to harvest a cultural tree in April of 2024. (U.S. Forest Service photo)
A combined crew from the Yakutat City and Borough and Tongass National Forest began pilot treatment of willows to improve moose browsing habitat in August of 2023. (U.S. Forest Service photo)

Tongass Forest Plan Revision draft released, starting clock on 45-day comment period

Plan seeks to balance range of tribal, environmental, industrial and climate goals.

A combined crew from the Yakutat City and Borough and Tongass National Forest began pilot treatment of willows to improve moose browsing habitat in August of 2023. (U.S. Forest Service photo)
A hiker explores the Tongass National Forest. (U.S. Forest Service photo)

The Forest Service just took an inventory of the Tongass, wants suggestions about what to protect

Two-month comment period on draft map part of major revision of forest’s land management plan.

A hiker explores the Tongass National Forest. (U.S. Forest Service photo)
The Ward Lake Recreation Area in the Tongass National Forest. (U.S. Forest Service photo)

Neighbors: Public input sought as Tongass begins revising 25-year-old forest plan

Initial phase focuses on listening, informing, and gathering feedback.

The Ward Lake Recreation Area in the Tongass National Forest. (U.S. Forest Service photo)
The sky and mountains are reflected in the water on April 5, 2012, at the Kootznoowoo Wilderness in the Tongass National Forest’s Admiralty Island National Monument. Conservation organizations bought some private land and transferred it to the U.S. Forest Service, resulting in an incremental expansion of the Kootznoowoo Wilderness and protection of habitat important to salmon and wildlife. (Photo by Don MacDougall/U.S. Forest Service)

Conservation groups’ purchase preserves additional land in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest

A designated wilderness area in Southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, the largest U.S. national forest, is now a little bit bigger, thanks to a land… Continue reading

The sky and mountains are reflected in the water on April 5, 2012, at the Kootznoowoo Wilderness in the Tongass National Forest’s Admiralty Island National Monument. Conservation organizations bought some private land and transferred it to the U.S. Forest Service, resulting in an incremental expansion of the Kootznoowoo Wilderness and protection of habitat important to salmon and wildlife. (Photo by Don MacDougall/U.S. Forest Service)
Fog drifts through the trees in the Tongass National Forest on Monday, Dec. 9, 2019. (Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)

Biden administration moves to protect oldest trees as climate change brings more fires, pests

The Biden administration moved on Tuesday to conserve groves of old-growth trees on national forests across the U.S. as climate change amplifies the threats they… Continue reading

Fog drifts through the trees in the Tongass National Forest on Monday, Dec. 9, 2019. (Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)
Sun shines through the canopy in the Tongass National Forest. (Photo by Brian Logan/U.S. Forest Service)

In new challenges to Alaska forest’s ‘Roadless Rule,’ pro-logging arguments have disappeared

U.S. Supreme Court rulings may give opponents new ammunition.

Sun shines through the canopy in the Tongass National Forest. (Photo by Brian Logan/U.S. Forest Service)
Fallen trees covered with moss are seen in the Shorty Creek area of the Tongass National Forest on Aug. 16. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Forest Service)

State challenges Biden’s revival of Roadless Rule in federal court

Complaint filed Friday continues more than two decades of battles over Tongass policy.

Fallen trees covered with moss are seen in the Shorty Creek area of the Tongass National Forest on Aug. 16. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Forest Service)
The Tongass National Forest includes 16.7 million acres and was established in 1907. The islands, forests, salmon streams, mountains and coastlines of Southeast Alaska are the ancestral lands of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people who continue to depend on and care for their traditional territories. The Tongass was not created with the consent of Alaska Native people and today, the U.S. Forest Service is working to improve government-to-government relations with the federally recognized tribal governments of Southeast Alaska. (Bethany Goodrich / Sustainable Southeast Partnership)

Resilient Peoples & Place: ‘Caring for the Land and Serving People’

A conversation with U.S. Forest Service Tribal Relations Specialist Jennifer Hanlon.

The Tongass National Forest includes 16.7 million acres and was established in 1907. The islands, forests, salmon streams, mountains and coastlines of Southeast Alaska are the ancestral lands of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people who continue to depend on and care for their traditional territories. The Tongass was not created with the consent of Alaska Native people and today, the U.S. Forest Service is working to improve government-to-government relations with the federally recognized tribal governments of Southeast Alaska. (Bethany Goodrich / Sustainable Southeast Partnership)
Assistant Fire Manager Leif Mathiesen, of the Sequoia & Kings Canyon Nation Park Fire Service, looks for an opening in the burned-out sequoias from the Redwood Mountain Grove which was devastated by the KNP Complex fires earlier in the year in the Kings Canyon National Park, Calif., on Nov. 19, 2021. Thousands of sequoias have been killed by wildfires in recent years. (AP Photo / Gary Kazanjian)

Forest plan stirs dispute over what counts as ‘old’

Already disagreement is emerging…

Assistant Fire Manager Leif Mathiesen, of the Sequoia & Kings Canyon Nation Park Fire Service, looks for an opening in the burned-out sequoias from the Redwood Mountain Grove which was devastated by the KNP Complex fires earlier in the year in the Kings Canyon National Park, Calif., on Nov. 19, 2021. Thousands of sequoias have been killed by wildfires in recent years. (AP Photo / Gary Kazanjian)
The Tongass National Forest sign on the way to the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center on Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2019. (Michael Penn | Juneau Empire)

Roadless Rollback? Dunleavy and Trump eye Tongass National Forest

Millions of acres could be opened for logging.

The Tongass National Forest sign on the way to the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center on Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2019. (Michael Penn | Juneau Empire)