Letter to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack - Encourage Responsible Stewardship of Tongass National Forest
Letter
Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Congressman Peter DeFazio (D-OR) led 74 Members of Congress today urging Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to support a real transition away from industrial scale old-growth logging towards more sustainable industries in the management of the Tongass National Forest.
"With limited resources and staff, we believe the Forest Service should focus actions that support the current and future economy of Southeast Alaska," the representatives wrote. "We support good paying jobs in the forest and support sustaining the local milling infrastructure by focusing on second and young growth forest stands, thinning, and watershed health that has been deteriorated by past logging practices. There is more than $100 million of work to be done to restore watersheds alone -- something that will take another 50 years to address at current funding levels.
"We also urge the Forest Service to invest limited agency resources in Tongass National Forest projects that support the 17,000 jobs in fishing, tourism, and recreation. These industries are losing business because of underfunded and understaffed agency offices and could be further undermined by the temporary and permanent costs of old growth logging. These jobs and restoration needs should be priorities."
The signers asked Vilsack to reevaluate the planned five year timber sale program and to heed the department's public commitments to break off from the old-growth logging business.
The full letter is as follows:
Dear Secretary Vilsack,
We are writing to encourage the Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Forest Service to refocus its limited resources on a quick transition plan away from logging old growth in the Tongass National Forest to support a more sustainable economy based on long-term sustainable forest management of second-growth forests, watershed restoration, fishing, tourism, and recreation.
The 17 million acre Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska is one of the last remaining intact temperate coastal rainforests in the world -- and it belongs to all Americans. The "crown jewel" of our national forest system is teeming with wildlife and contains 800-year-old trees as well as 5,500 salmon-filled rivers and streams. The Tongass also contributes significantly to the surrounding ecosystem and local communities by providing clean water, carbon storage, habitat for endangered and threatened species, intact wildlife corridors, and is visited by over one million tourists each year.
Intensive old growth logging over the past century has resulted in the loss of half or more of the Tongass' large tree old growth stands. Old growth now makes up less than three percent of the Tongass National Forest. The further loss of already scarce old growth will permanently reduce forest diversity, diminish water quality, degrade vital fish and wildlife habitat, reduce carbon storage, as well as restrain the fishing, tourism, and recreation industries.
Given these threats, we supported your 2010 announcement to start "transitioning quickly away from timber harvesting in roadless areas and old growth forests," and appreciate your recent Secretarial Memorandum that affirms those goals. However, we were surprised and disappointed by your subsequent announcement of the five year timber sale program for the Tongass National Forest. The five year plan would log 690 million board feet (MMBF), the equivalent of a 25 year supply of old growth timber at the current rate (18 million board feet). The plan also includes the controversial 150 MMBF Big Thorne old growth timber sale -- the largest timber sale proposal for the entire national forest system in the last decade. Big Thorne would result in the destruction of trees up to 800 years old and 12 feet in diameter. This timber sale is clearly inconsistent with your plan to quickly transition out of old growth logging.
With limited resources and staff, we believe the Forest Service should focus actions that support the current and future economy of Southeast Alaska. We support good paying jobs in the forest and support sustaining the local milling infrastructure by focusing on second and young growth forest stands, thinning, and watershed health that has been deteriorated by past logging practices. There is more than $100 million of work to be done to restore watersheds alone -- something that will take another 50 years to address at current funding levels.
We also urge the Forest Service to invest limited agency resources in Tongass National Forest projects that support the 17,000 jobs in fishing, tourism, and recreation. These industries are losing business because of underfunded and understaffed agency offices and could be further undermined by the temporary and permanent costs of old growth logging. These jobs and restoration needs should be priorities.
We strongly support your transition plan for the Tongass National Forest. We think it is the right plan for the forest, local communities, businesses, and the taxpayer. We hope you will critically reevaluate the planned timber sale program given the department's public commitments to get out of the old growth logging business and to end large old growth timber sales like Big Thorne.
We thank you for your attention to this important issue.
Sincerely,
Rosa DeLauro
Peter DeFazio
Earl Blumenauer
Suzanne Bonamici
Corrine Brown
Lois Capps
Judy Chu
David Cicilline
Wm. Lacy Clay
Gerald Connolly
John Conyers
Joe Courtney
Joe Crowley
Elijah Cummings
Ted Deutch
Lloyd Doggett
Donna Edwards
Anna Eshoo
Elizabeth Esty
Sam Farr
Raul Grijalva
Alcee Hastings
Ruben Hinojosa
Rush Holt
Mike Honda
Jared Huffman
Steve Israel
Hank Johnson
William Keating
Joe Kennedy
Jim Langevin
Barbara Lee
Sander Levin
John Lewis
Daniel Lipinski
Zoe Lofgren
Alan Lowenthal
Nita Lowey
Stephen Lynch
Carolyn Maloney
Doris Matsui
Betty McCollum
Jim McDermott
Jim McGovern
Jerry McNerney
Michael Michaud
George Miller
Jim Moran
Jerrold Nadler
Grace Napolitano
Beto O'Rourke
Frank Pallone
Bill Pascrell
Chellie Pingree
David Price
Mike Quigley
Charles Rangel
Jan Schakowsky
Adam Schiff
Allyson Schwartz
Jose Serrano
Carol Shea-Porter
Brad Sherman
Louise Slaughter
Adam Smith
Jackie Speier
John Tierney
Dina Titus
Paul Tonko
Niki Tsongas
Chris Van Hollen
Maxine Waters
Henry Waxman
Peter Welch
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