Inforain Ecotrust

Tongass National Forest

Roads Through the Tongass Provide Access, But at What Cost?

Page 1: Forest Conditions in Southest Alaska

Page 2: Timber Sales on Tongass National Forest

Page 3: Roads through the Tongass provide access, but at what cost?

Page 4: References

» Download the map as a PDF file. (490kb)

The Tongass already contains:

» 4,300 miles of roads6

» that provide access to 1.4 million acres of public lands7

» including 475,000 acres of productive old forest.8

» This forestland contains 5.4 billion board-feet of harvestable old-growth9

» and 7.7 billion additional board-feet of second-growth estimated to reach harvestable levels within the next 100 years.10

This 13 billion board-feet located within already-roaded areas will support timber harvest at recent average levels and represents the resource base for a sustainable logging industry.11

No more roads need be built.

 

The Tongass already contains:

» 4,300 miles of roads6

» which have a maintenance backlog of over $800 million12

» and intersect thousands of documented salmon-bearing streams13

» Among these road-stream crossings, 66% of the culverts are inadequate for salmon passage14

Building new roads diminishes valuable habitat, increasing the maintenance responsibilities of an already overburdened U.S. Forest Service and threatening the long-term viability of many salmon runs.

No more roads should be built.

 

» thereby violating the Tongass Land and Resource Management Plan directive to "maintain fish passage through stream crossing structures."15

Roads in Tongass   Roads in Tongass

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