A coalition of rainforest defenders who successfully halted a massive timber sale on Prince of Wales Island in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest received word this week that their legal victory would go unchallenged. The U.S. Department of Justice informed the court that it would not pursue its previously filed appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, instead opting to end the dispute with a motion for voluntary dismissal. That put to rest the largest logging operation proposed by the U.S. Forest Service in decades.

The legal victory spared centuries-old trees on 1.8 million acres across Prince of Wales Island in the Tongass National Forest, quelling fears of traditional hunters and others in Southeast Alaska who rely on the area for wild food gathering, fishing, tourism, and recreation.

Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law firm, represents the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, Alaska Rainforest Defenders, Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife, Alaska Wilderness League, National Audubon Society, and Natural Resources Defense Council in this case. 

While this legal victory effectively dissolves a plan authorizing logging on more than 40,000 acres of old-growth and younger trees, a new timber sale planned for Prince of Wales Island targets roughly 3,000 acres of old-growth forest, including some of the same areas incorporated in the plan struck down in court. Known as the Twin Mountain II timber sale, this new Forest Service plan would affect separate areas north and west of Thorne Bay on Prince of Wales Island. 

At the same time, the larger Tongass National Forest continues to remain at risk of new logging activity. This week or next, the U.S. Forest Service is expected to issue a record of decision finalizing a plan to roll back the Roadless Rule, a federal safeguard that restricts logging and road-building in designated wild areas, within the Tongass National Forest. The policy shift would allow for logging in vast expanses of old-growth temperate rainforest across 9 million currently protected acres.

Background

• Court ruling striking down U.S. Forest Service Record of Decision and Environmental Impact Statement on the Prince of Wales project
• Press Release on initial ruling against Prince of Wales logging plan
• Press Release on U.S. Forest Service plan to roll back Roadless Rule

Colin Arisman
A massive timber sale on Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska targeted old-growth trees, which help fight climate change and in some cases have been standing for centuries. A March 11, 2020 court ruling found that approval of the sweeping logging plan violated several federal environmental laws.