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US House Votes to Limit Tongass Roads to Nowhere Subsidies

Taxpayers and America’s Rainforest in Alaska Protected

In a stunning bipartisan effort, today the House of Representatives voted to limit money to build logging roads in the Tongass National Forest. The amendment to the FY2007 Interior Appropriations bill, sponsored by Reps. Steve Chabot (R-OH) and Robert Andrews (D-NJ), won by a vote of 237 to 181. The amendment is supported by a broad coalition of taxpayer and budget watchdog groups, sportsmen and conservationists.

“This is a major step toward saving our last great rainforest and saving taxpayer money as well,” said Caitlin Hills, Legislative Director with the Alaska Rainforest Campaign. “The Tongass is home to one of the government's most ridiculous subsidies, with tens of millions spent on each year on roads that go nowhere. With the government running huge budget deficits, members of Congress from both parties realized its good business to stop the colossal waste of tax dollars in the Tongass.”

Subsidized roads used to log the Tongass National Forest have cost American taxpayers millions – in 2005 alone, the Forest Service spent $48.5 million on the Tongass logging program and received only $500,000 in revenue. Over the past two decades, losses have reached roughly $1 billion. One recent Tongass road project cost taxpayers $2.9 million, though the private company using the road to log only paid the treasury $107,000 for the trees it cut.

“The Tongass is the crown jewel of the National Forest system,” said Aurah Landau, spokeswoman for the Alaska Coalition. “This is a terrific victory for America’s Rainforest and America’s taxpayers.”

Yesterday’s vote comes at a time when the Tongass is under increased threat. Currently the Forest Service is moving forward with about 100 timber projects in the Tongass National Forest. Until December 2003, about 50 of these were protected from commercial logging under the Roadless Rule.

“The leadership provided by Reps. Chabot and Andrews was invaluable,” said Cindy Shogan, Executive Director of the Alaska Wilderness League. “Americans and Tongass wildlife owe them a huge thanks.”

The victory is especially significant because the Forest Service has recently been caught using federal money to build Tongass roads illegally. In addition, the agency has been managing the Tongass under an illegal forest plan that needlessly doubled logging and road building levels. Those errors are at the heart of the perennial taxpayer losses.

The Tongass National Forest is part of the world’s last intact temperate rainforest. Centuries-old trees provide critical habitat for wolves, grizzly bears, wild salmon, bald eagles and other wildlife that have disappeared from many other parts of the country. During the last 45 years, the Alaska timber industry has logged over 1 million acres of Southeast Alaska’s old-growth forest and built over 5000 miles of logging roads in the Tongass.

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