Tongass National Forest.
Roadless areas in the Tongass are needed to maintain healthy populations of wolves, bears and many other species. (USDA)

In 2009, a diverse coalition of Alaska Native, tourism industry, and environmental organizations challenged the Bush administration's 2003 rule "temporarily" exempting southeast Alaska's Tongass National Forest—the nation's largest and wildest—from the landmark 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule.

Tongass roadless areas are needed to maintain healthy populations of wolves, bears, goshawks, deer, marten, and five species of Pacific salmon, among other species. These places are vital for the region's burgeoning tourism industry as well as commercial fishing, sport hunting and fishing, subsistence, and recreation. The American public has overwhelmingly supported including the Tongass in the Roadless Rule.

In March 2011, a federal district judge in Alaska ruled for the plaintiffs vacating the Tongass Exemption and reinstating the Roadless Rule’s application to the Tongass. The State of Alaska has appealed this decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and also launched a direct challenge to the Roadless Rule in the D.C. District Court.

The rationale for temporarily exempting the Tongass from the Roadless Rule was flawed when adopted and is even more anomalous today. The enormous cost of building roads into Tongass roadless areas greatly exceeds the value of the timber and requires unconscionable federal taxpayer subsidies. The Forest Service should stop building these wasteful roads and focus instead on restoring degraded watersheds and unmaintained roads resulting from decades of misguided forest policy.