Tongass Forest Service Prepares for Roadless Rule Change

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced it intends to finalize a nationwide rollback of the Roadless Rule next year. The move would allow new road construction and logging on national forest lands, including the Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska. The department cited improved access for wildfires and reduced regulatory barriers as primary reasons for the change.

Currently, roughly half of the Tongass lacks active roads, covering more than 9 million acres. Under the current Forest Management Plan, the Forest Service identifies 188,000 acres of that roadless land as suitable for logging if the ban dissolves. This area represents less than 2% of the total Tongass acreage. Approximately 4% of the forest has already been logged in the past.

Judith Dax̱ootsú Ramos, a Lingít anthropologist from Yakutat, said the forest supports traditional Lingít practices such as harvesting berries and hunting deer. Ramos serves on the board of the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, a nonprofit that advocates for keeping the Roadless Rule in place. She visited Prince of Wales Island, where she observed regrowth in old-growth clear cuts. Ramos described the area as quiet and lacking in visible animals or birds.

"Without this, we’re going to lose our traditional medicines, our traditional art styles, our traditional foods, and all that is really connected to the forest," Ramos said. She noted that the Lingít have lived in the region for at least 10,000 years and emphasized the need for an intact forest system to support future generations and act as a carbon sink.

Tessa Axelson, executive director of the Alaska Forest Association, said lifting the rule would increase timber supply but would not fully resolve industry challenges. Axelson noted that transportation costs remain a major hurdle, as Southeast Alaska timber must often be shipped by boat. Viking Lumber, one of the region’s largest remaining timber companies, estimates the average cost to build a logging road at $200,000 per mile.

Axelson stated that tariffs imposed last year contributed to Tongass log exports reaching their lowest level ever. She said operators are now sitting on millions of dollars worth of product due to reduced overseas markets. The Alaska Forest Association, Viking Lumber, and Alcan Timber sued the Forest Service last March over timber access, but a federal judge dismissed the case this spring. The timber groups are currently appealing that decision.

Susan Alexander, a retired Forest Service economist, said previous rollbacks of the Roadless Rule did not lead to a logging boom in the Tongass. She noted that the agency often spent millions preparing timber sales that never closed because of political shifts. A 2019 report by Taxpayers for Common Sense found that the Forest Service recouped only 5.4% of the more than $600 million it spent preparing timber sales between 1999 and 2018. The agency spends approximately $177 per thousand board-feet to prepare a sale in the Tongass.

The Forest Service is currently revising the Tongass Forest Management Plan. The agency stated that the regional economy has shifted from timber to recreation and tourism, a change that has been profound since the previous plan was finalized. Tourism now supports more than 8,000 jobs in the region, while the timber industry supports fewer than 300. Paul Robbins, a Tongass National Forest spokesperson, said the timber program has historically focused on supporting remote community livelihoods rather than revenue generation. The department expects to finalize the Roadless Rule change next year.