Good News for Green Spaces

March 17, 2011

Tongass National Forest, Alaska

A federal district court in Alaska has stopped the chainsaws from chewing up some 2.3 million acres of ancient trees in the Tongass National Forest. Old-growth forests have some of the best habitats for wildlife and offer a snapshot of how the natural world operates when people are not behind the wheel.

Meanwhile, the court’s ruling comes as the Obama administration is holding a series of public forums on its proposed plan for how to manage all 155 national forests (and 20 grasslands) across the country.

Defenders was among the first conservation groups to weigh in on the National Forest Management Act draft rule, highlighting how the proposal weakens long-standing wildlife protections on our nation’s forests.

And we’re doing a good job getting the message out. The New York Times on Tuesday editorialized on the forest-planning rule.

And we’re doing a good job getting the message out. The New York Times on Tuesday editorialized on the forest-planning rule, writing: “The Obama administration’s proposed rules improve on the Bush rules and are full of high-minded promises about maintaining “viable” animal populations. But they are disappointingly vague on the question of how — and how often — the biological diversity of any particular forest is to be measured and what actions are to be taken to ensure its survival.

Brown bears call the Tongass home.

“The net result is to give too much discretion to individual forest managers and not nearly enough say to scientists. This is dangerous because, over the years, forest managers have been easily influenced by timber companies and local politicians whose main interest is to increase the timber harvest.”

What Defenders Is Doing

As the Obama administration holds public forums across the country over the next several weeks, Defenders will be urging federal officials to step up protections for wildlife in the final rule through our written comments, attending the public meetings, reaching out to the press, and with the help of our supporters and activists.