Good news! An amendment to the FY 2007 Interior Appropriations bill that prohibits subsidized logging in me was recently passed on the U.S. House of Representatives floor by a vote of 283 to 145!
Also, check out the feature article and learn more about me in the July 2007 National Geographic!
Hey, I'm the Tongass National Forest.
I was created in 1907 by the great Teddy Roosevelt. You might regard him as another founding father, but to me he is a true father.
For forty years after I was created, I was left pretty much to myself. Then in 1947 America began managing for timber. I must say, sometimes I don't mind. Think of it like a haircut. It doesn't hurt, unless the barber shaves you 'till you're bleeding. In the 1950's the fifty-year contracts that the government signed with timber companies did just that. Clearcutting and road-building took precedence over all other activities on my soil.
For a long time, I just had to deal with them shaving too close to the skin. I rationalized it, saying that my timber was helping the state and the country that I was a part of. And I do believe that, but I knew there was a better way.
In 2001, Bill Clinton created the 'Roadless Rule' which says that any large areas that don't already have roads, can't have roads, thus protecting all of the lands I contained that hadn't already been logged. The relief, for me, was tremendous.
But for the past five years, the Bush administration has been weakening the roadless rules, and, once again, logging trucks are moving deep into my most sensitive areas. The logs, once cut, are minimally processed in Alaska and then most of them are sent to China to meet their demand. I can no longer pretend like my pain is assisting this great country. My pain is only assisting a very few wealthy people, and I don't want to sit here and let it happen like I did for the last 50 years.
Lastly, I should express my thanks to Alaska Wilderness League for giving me a voice in this virtual world. My existence here is supported by the League, a leading DC-based non-profit group. I'm happy to report that they are not asking that I raise their profile. Instead, they simply ask that I tell my story and seek help from as many people as possible.
