Leave Alaska’s rain forest alone

The Tongass National Forest, the world’s largest intact coastal temperate rain forest, covers about 17 million acres of southeast Alaska, where it provides near-pristine habitat to an astonishing range of wildlife. According to the National Audubon Society, loggers over the decades have felled more than 90 per cent of the old-growth hemlocks and other trees, many dating to before Europeans arrived in North America.

Since 2001, the federal government has barred most new roads from being cut in more than nine million acres of the Tongass under the ‘‘roadless rule’’ adopted to preserve forest lands from destructive human incursions and increased logging. But the Trump administration now is considering exempting the Tongass from the roadless designation. Why? Because Alaska asked for it. The answer to that request should be an emphatic ‘‘no’’.

Alaska Governor Bill Walker said: ‘‘Alaskans are the ones best positioned to determine responsible development.’’

No, they are not ‘‘best positioned’’ when the land at issue is federal land held in trust for all of us, and it just happens to be within the state’s boundaries.

State and local officials should be consulted in drafting management plans, but ultimately the decisions must be based on what is in the best interests of the American people at large.