The Tongass and the Roadless Rule: On the ballot

President Donald Trump continues to declare open season on the public lands of the United States. Last week, the administration announced it was completing plans to open 9 million acres of the Tongass National Forest in Alaska to logging and road construction. These 9 million acres of pristine woodlands should be protected, but if Trump gets his way, that won’t happen.

Alaska’s governor and congressional representatives also want at the Tongass, which had been protected under a Clinton-era policy called the Roadless Rule, put into place as President Bill Clinton was finishing his second term. The policy stopped logging and road building in much of the national forest system, protecting resources for the past two decades. Even if widespread logging does not return to the Tongass, backers of removing the rule believe it could open up development of other sorts — mining, hydroelectric dams or improved broadband infrastructure.

As far as the U.S. Forest Service is concerned, the rule can be lifted without harm to the environment. Such a finding means the Trump administration could propose timber sales and road construction projects as soon as the end of the year. There’s only a 30-day waiting period until the U.S. Department of Agriculture — which oversees the Forest Service — can issue a final decision on its Roadless Rule for the Tongass National Forest.

In public comments, some 96 percent of people taking a stand opposed the full exemption, including fierce opposition from Alaskan Native tribes. Many are concerned about the impact of road construction on the waters of the Tongass; the silt in the streams harms fish.

The Forest Service could have kept restrictions on 80 percent of the protected area under six possible plans, but chose to eliminate protections on as much land as possible. It’s another example of how the Trump administration views public lands as paths to profit, as opposed to places to protect.

He has spent much of his first term targeting environmental protections, rolling back more than 100 regulations put in place to protect the nation’s air, water and public lands from pollution or greedy industries.

For no other reason, people who care about the environment have a reason to vote — a President Joe Biden could reverse those decisions and restore protections in the early days of office. Environmental protections offer reasons to vote for, not against, when choosing a president. (The same is true for folks who believe in extracting resources as fast as possible; they can vote for a continuation of these disastrous policies.)

We focus attention on the Tongass for several reasons. In New Mexico, we have seen what happens when old-growth forests are sacrificed to commercial interests. There is a difference between sustainable clearing projects and traditional forest uses and clear-cutting. Extensive logging reduces habitats for wild creatures and can harm rivers, streams and lakes.

When the work is done, communities are left to deal with the fallout. And that’s not just a problem in the timber industry, either.

Oil and gas companies continue to covet the resources on our public lands, with resulting damage to air, land and water. If Trump’s open season on public lands is allowed to stand, the environment of Northern New Mexico — including traditional communities and our expanding outdoors industry — will be adversely impacted. (For more about the fight to protect public lands, watch Public Trust: The Fight for America’s Public Lands, a documentary detailing the battle to protect public lands.)

The debate is about more than whether logging is an economic plus — either for Alaska or New Mexico. The Tongass, one of the world’s largest temperate rain forests, stores some 8 percent of the carbon stored in all the forests of the Lower 48 states combined. Those old trees must continue to flourish to benefit the planet. Cutting trees in the Tongass, say climate scientists, would release harmful amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere — it’s the equivalent of America’s Amazon.

Protecting the Tongass protects the planet. Voters should keep that in mind when casting their ballots for president.