Timber Harvesting in Roadless Areas

4 Jun

Judges ruled against a lawsuit brought by Greenpeace and Cascadia Wildlands Project in May, effectively allowing four timber sales in the Tongass Roadless Area of Alaska. The struggle for the conservation of roadless areas has historically been very strong in the Tongass, and this verdict comes as a major setback. The Tongass is larger than West Virginia, and is home to the Alexander Archipelago timber wolf, a species of wolf only found in Alaska. What about the roadless moratorium, you ask? I guess we’ll soon find out.

Meanwhile, 62 timber sales are going through in the northwestern United States this year, prospectively desecrating thousands of acres of forest. Take a gander at theMedford District Timber Sale Plan to see what’s happening and which corporations are doing the buying.