From PennEnvironment (http://www.pennenvironment.org):
We need to act quickly to avoid losing one of the last truly wild places we have left.
For years, mining and logging interests and their allies have had their sights set on the pristine wilderness of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest — and the Trump administration just handed them a big victory: Late last month, the president told the Interior Department to exempt the Tongass from the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, opening up more than half of the forest to destructive development.1
Here’s the good news: Congress can put a stop to this. Go to https://pennenvironment.webaction.org/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=34544 to tell our U.S. senators to pass the Roadless Area Conservation Act and protect the Tongass permanently.
The Roadless Rule is an administrative policy our network helped win under President Clinton almost 20 years ago. It’s time to give it the full force of law.
The Roadless Area Conservation Act would do just that, granting permanent protection to the Tongass and to all 58.5 million acres of roadless national forest in 39 states. It would also protect watersheds that provide clean drinking water for tens of millions of Americans.2
The idea behind the Roadless Rule — and the Roadless Area Conservation Act — is simple: If it’s still wild, it should stay that way. Areas untouched by logging and road building shouldn’t be for sale.
The trees of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest have stood for centuries, towering over a pristine wilderness ecosystem. More than 300 different species of birds, including bald eagles, perch in their branches. Moose, deer and bears stroll between the trunks. Salmon dart through roots along the banks of glacier-fed rivers that cut through the forest.3,4
No logging or mining operation is worth putting all that at risk.
Tell your U.S. senators: Pass the Roadless Area Conservation Act.
In 2001, 1.6 million of us spoke up to put the Roadless Rule in place. It’s time to speak up again to make it permanent.
1. Juliet Eilperin and Josh Dawsey, “Trump pushes to allow new logging in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest,” The Washington Post, August 27, 2019.
2. “S.1311 — Roadless Area Conservation Act of 2019,” Congress.gov, last accessed September 4, 2019.
3. “Conservation: Tongass National Forest,” Audubon Alaska, last accessed September 4, 2019.
4. “Tongass National Forest: Glaciers,” United States Department of Agriculture, last accessed September 4, 2019.
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