Judge Issues Preliminary Injunction Halting Old-Growth Timber Sale in Tongass National Forest
Download Alaska Rainforest Defenders press release.
Initial phase of staggering logging project placed on hold a day before bids were scheduled to open. Today a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction that halts, for now, the initial phase of the largest timber sale approved by the U.S. Forest Service in 30 years. The USFS has targeted Prince of Wales Island, a part of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, with a 15-year plan to log more than 42,500 acres of temperate rainforest and construct 164 miles of new roads through public lands. Most of the trees targeted for logging are old-growth, and may have sprouted as saplings many centuries ago.
USFS authorized this massive logging project without disclosing which specific locations would be targeted or what impacts logging would have there, prompting Earthjustice to file a lawsuit on behalf of several organizations in May 2019 challenging the Prince of Wales project. The Plaintiffs are Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, Alaska Rainforest Defenders, Alaska Wilderness League, National Audubon Society, Defenders of Wildlife, Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, and Natural Resources Defense Council.
Today’s ruling, by a federal district judge in Alaska, grants a preliminary injunction blocking an initial sale that would have auctioned off 1,156 acres of old-growth trees. More than 10 miles of new roads would have been constructed along with this sale. If not for this court decision, USFS would have opened timber industry bids on these ancient stands of trees on September 24. Next, the judge is expected to issue a final ruling on the merits of the case no later than March 31, before the next logging season starts.