Alaska Rainforest Defenders

SITKA, Alaska, July 15, 2020— The Center for Biological Diversity, Alaska Rainforest Defenders and Defenders of Wildlife petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today to give Endangered Species Act protections to the Alexander Archipelago wolf in Southeast Alaska.

Fed up with the State of Alaska’s and State Senator Stedman’s continued blind-eye to widespread public opposition to the so-called “Kake Access Project,” local citizens, the Organized Village of Kake, and allies acted in early July against issuance of a federal permit that the project needs.

On June 24, 2020 federal District Court Judge Sharon Gleason, granted a complete victory to Alaska Rainforest Defenders and seven other environmental plaintiffs, vacating the Forest Service’s 2019 decision to conduct massive logging and road building in a project it euphemistically called the Prince of Wales Landscape Level Analysis (POWLLA).

According to the April 1, 2020, Tongass National Forest Schedule of Proposed Actions (SOPA), the Central Tongass Project (CTP) has been put “on hold” for an undetermined length of time.

A federal judge rejected an enormous commercial timber harvest and road-building plan for Prince of Wales Island in the Tongass National Forest of Southeast Alaska.

Alaska Rainforest Defenders is the region’s strongest voice for protecting Southeast Alaska’s forests and the fish and wildlife habitat and subsistence opportunities they harbor.

Roadless Rule exemption alternatives reflect a transparent attempt by the Alaska Governor's office, the Forest Service, and Alaska's congressional delegation to expand the scale of clearcutting in some of southeast Alaska's most ecologically important ecosystems.

In October, the Forest Service released its Tongass Roadless Exemption Draft Environmental Impact Statement with six alternatives. All but the first, No Action alternative would gut current roadless areas, but the last one is the agency's preferred alternative and intends to completely abolish the Tongass National Forest from the 2001 Roadless Rule.

The Alaska Rainforest Defenders have submitted comments on the Central Tongass Project Draft Environmental Impact Statement to request that the USFS cease planning on this destructive project.