John,

The Trump administration continues its assault on our public lands. Last week the Forest Service issued a proposal to open more than 9 million pristine acres of Alaska's Tongass National Forest to clearcut logging and bulldozing of roads. This would endanger one of the largest intact old-growth temperate rainforests left in North America. And crucially, it would set a terrible precedent for other national forests by rolling back protections that explicitly bar destructive roads.

Help defend these national treasures. Tell Trump's Forest Service to choose the "no action" alternative and uphold safeguards for the Tongass.

The new proposal would eliminate protections the Tongass now enjoys under what's known as the Roadless Rule. For nearly two decades, that rule has protected much of our country's last wild national forests from most logging and development. At almost 17 million acres, the Tongass is the largest U.S. national forest — and one of the world's most important temperate rainforests. On the Tongass alone the rule protects 9.3 million acres of breathtaking, undeveloped forests.  

This attack also threatens habitat for grizzly and black bears, rare Alexander Archipelago wolves and wild salmon. And it would be a major blow to one of our greatest defenses against climate change: the forest's centuries-old trees that store huge amounts of carbon.

And adding insult to injury, at the last minute, Trump snuck in a poison pill that would open the door to bulldozers and chainsaws on 5.3 million more acres of roadless lands on the neighboring Chugach National Forest — a spectacular landscape of rugged mountains, snow-covered peaks, lakes, rivers and streams.

Stand up for millions of acres of one of our wildest places. Tell the feds to keep the Roadless Rule's protections for Alaska's Tongass rainforest.