[ [link removed] ]Tell the Department of Agriculture: No logging in the Tongass National
Forest

Petition to Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue:
"Reject plans to open the Tongass National Forest to devastating
exploitation by logging and mining interests."

Add your name:

[ [link removed] ]Sign the petition ►

Dear John,

[ [link removed] ]Tell the Department of
Agriculture: No logging in
the Tongass National
Forest

The Amazon is burning, and yet Donald Trump wants to open the world's
largest intact temperate forest to exploitation by mining and logging
companies.

Instead of putting pressure on Trumpian Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro to
act in the Amazon, Trump appears to be following his lead here in America.
He recently instructed the secretary of agriculture to open 10 million
acres in the stunning Tongass National Forest to brutal exploitation.^1

Tongass retains more carbon than any forest in the United States, provides
habitat for iconic wild creatures and contains old-growth trees as much as
1,000 years old.^2 We can't let Trump destroy it.

[ [link removed] ]Tell the Department of Agriculture: No logging in the Tongass National
Forest. Click here to sign the petition.

"There are very few places in the world that are wild," one Alaska tour
guide told reporters. "Here we have one, in southeast Alaska, and it’s
being put at risk.”^3 The Tongass National Forest is a 500-mile
archipelago, which encompasses the world's largest temperate rainforest
and is "home to five species of Pacific salmon, humpback and orca whales,
otters, beavers, Alexander Archipelago wolves, plus some of the largest
concentrations of brown bears and bald eagles found in the United
States."^4

Its old-growth trees store vast amounts of carbon – an estimated 10-12% of
all of America's national forests – and play a critical role as "Alaska’s
first line of climate change defense."^5,6 Local indigenous people,
including the Tlingit and Haida, have lived in this region for centuries
and rely on the forest's healthy natural resources for survival.^7

The Tongass was open to logging exploitation until the 1990s. As much as
half of the old-growth trees in the forest were clear-cut. A Clinton-era
"roadless rule" requires the National Forest Service to approve new
industrial roads that allow for logging on a case-by-case basis. But Trump
recently directed the secretary of agriculture to exempt the Tongass from
the rule and unilaterally open up to 10 million acres to exploitation. It
appears to be a prelude to pushing for a full repeal of the rule that
limits oil, gas and logging companies from plowing up our national
forests.^8,9

Trump's plan would also devastate tourism and sustainable salmon fishing –
costing Alaska far more than it would gain from environmentally
destructive logging that requires federal subsidies to be profitable.^10
Clear-cutting forests has weirdly become "an obsession" for Trump,
according to a former advisor.^11 We need to generate a massive public
backlash to stop this idea in its tracks before mining and gas companies
plow through the Tongass.

Tell the Department of Agriculture: No logging in the Tongass National
Forest. Click the link below to sign the petition:

[ [link removed] ][link removed]

Thank you for speaking out,

Heidi Hess, Co-Director
[ [link removed] ]CREDO Action from Working Assets

Add your name:

[ [link removed] ]Sign the petition ►

References:

 1. Brendan Jones, "[ [link removed] ]We need the Tongass now more than ever," The
Washington Post, Aug. 29, 2019.
 2. Juliet Eilperin and Josh Dawsey, "[ [link removed] ]Trump pushes to allow new logging
in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest," The Washington Post, Aug. 27,
2019.
 3. Ibid.
 4. Dominick A. DellaSala, "[ [link removed] ]The Tongass Rainforest as Alaska’s First
Line of Climate Change Defense and Importance to the Paris Climate
Change Agreements," Forest Legacies.
 5. Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network, "[ [link removed] ]Alaska Indigenous Women
to Senator Murkowski: End The Assault On Our Communities and Lands,"
HuffPost, Jan. 10, 2018.
 6. Krista Langlois, "[ [link removed] ]Thanks to Trump, This Senator Finally Gets Her
Chance to Decimate Alaska’s Environmental Protections," Mother Jones,
March 11, 2018.
 7. Earthjustice, "[ [link removed] ]Federal Courts Uphold Landmark Federal Forest
Protections Again," Sept. 22, 2017.
 8. The Seattle Times Editorial Board, "[ [link removed] ]Stop the assault on Tongass
forest," The Seattle Times, Aug. 29, 2019.
 9. Jones, "[ [link removed] ]We need the Tongass now more than ever."
10. Ibid.
11. Eilperin and Dawsey, "[ [link removed] ]Trump pushes to allow new logging in
Alaska’s Tongass National Forest."

photo: Carlos Rojas/Getty Images

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

[ [link removed] ]FB [ [link removed] ]Share on Facebook
Post to your wall
[ [link removed] ]Tw [ [link removed] ]Tweet this
Post to Twitter

[1]CREDO action

© 2019 CREDO. All rights reserved.

This email was sent to [email protected].

To change your email or mailing address, please click here: [link removed]

To unsubscribe, please visit our subscription management page at: [link removed]