Q. Aren't rainforests found only in the tropics?

A. No. There are two kinds of rainforests. The more common tropical rainforests, like the Amazon, cover about 10 percent of the Earth. The less common temperate rainforests, like the Alaskan rainforest, covers just 0.2 percent of the Earth. Temperate rainforests, one of the most biologically productive ecosystems on Earth, exist in only a few places including the coasts of New Zealand, Tasmania, Patagonia and western North America. Alaska's coastal rainforest is the northern half of the North American temperate rainforest.

Q. How much temperate rainforest is left?

A. More than half the world's original temperate rainforest has already been lost to logging. From 50 to 95 percent of the southern half of North America's temperate rainforest has already been logged. Due to extensive logging elsewhere, Alaska’as coastal rainforest accounts for over 40 percent of the world's remaining temperate rainforest and the largest remaining intact forest tracts.

Q. Isn't most of Alaska's rainforest already off-limits to logging?

A. No. The majority of Alaska's rainforest is within the Tongass and Chugach National Forests, the nation's two largest. While the Tongass and Chugach encompass large land areas – more than 22.5 million acres combined – very little of the forested areas are protected from logging and other development. The Chugach has no designated wilderness. The Tongass contains about six million acres of Congressionally designated wilderness, a high proportion of which is non- or lightly forested.

Q. Since trees grow back, isn't the rainforest renewable even if it's logged?

A. No. Approximately 20-30 years after clearcutting, the forest closes in and reaches a stage where very little light reaches the forest floor. This stage is persistent, lasting for 200 years before ancient forest conditions important for fish and wildlife return. Because current Forest Service regulations allow for second growth stands to be cut again after 100 years, the forest may never regain the old-growth characteristics important to wildlife.

Q. Are any species endangered in the Alaska rainforest?

A. Endangered species confrontations can be avoided in Alaska if management strategies are adjusted now while there is still sufficient habitat to protect the species. However, concerns have been raised about three Alaska wildlife species, the Queen Charlotte Goshawk, the Alexander Archipelago wolf and the Kenai brown bear.

Q. Are adequate provisions in place to protect Alaska's great salmon runs?

A. No. A 2006 report from Trout Unlimited found that currently over 70 percent of the 5 species of wild salmon, steelhead, cutthroat trout, and Dolly Varden are found in roadless watersheds. Most of these areas are currently open to logging and development. According to a Forest Service evaluation of roadless areas in 2003, “roads pose the greatest risk to the fish resources on the Tongass.” If we are to protect the wild salmon and other fisheries so important to Alaska’s economy and way of life, then more of these areas need to receive lasting, permanent protection.

Q. Won't the economy suffer if logging levels are reduced?

A. No. The timber industry constitutes an ever-decreasing proportion of Alaska's economy. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis, despite massive taxpayer subsidies, Alaskan timber revenues declined by almost 50 percent between 1997 and 2001. At the same time, Alaska's overall economy expanded by 1.5 percent, adding 4,500 jobs in its sixteenth straight year of employment growth.

Regionally, the timber industry is a poor indicator of overall economic health. Logging is only one of many forest-based industries and employs a relatively small percentage of local residents. Tourism, sport fishing and hunting, commercial fishing, and subsistence depend on maintaining a healthy forest and provide the best growth opportunities in the long term.

Q. How can the forest products industry survive if roadless areas are off limits to logging?

A. According to the Forest Service, 79 million board feet of timber can be accessed every year off of the existing road system. The average cut on the Tongass for the past 5 years has been less than 50 million board feet. Additionally, most wood logged in Alaska is exported to Japan and other Asian nations with minimal processing in Alaska. Logging in the Alaska rainforest could produce more jobs with less wood by increasing the value added to forest products through increased local processing.

Q. Aren't mills closing in Alaska due to lack of timber supply?

A. No. According to a 2004 Forest Service report, “in the past, the supply of timber for harvest and processing composed the major channel through which forest management could impact economic activity, the impact of management on the quality and quantity of recreational opportunities, aesthetic experiences and lifestyle amenities is now paramount.”

Additionally, from 1998-2005 there were no buyers for nearly 50 percent of all Tongass timber offered for sale. Even after re-offering some of these sales two or three times, the Forest Service could only sell one-third of the volume rejected the first time.  During the same time period, close to half of the reoffered timber volume sold was eventually returned to the Forest Service either because of the operator’s bankruptcy or the agency concluded the sale would result in financial loss to the operator.

Q. Where do most of the trees logged in Alaska go?

A. More than 80% of the old-growth spruce, hemlock, and cedar logged in southeast Alaska is exported to Asia, primarily Japan. Over half of the wood, including almost all Alaskan Yellow Cedar – the rarest tree in the Tongass, is exported directly from Alaska to Asia as round, un-processed logs. Of the logs which are not directly exported, most go to ports in the Pacific Northwest and is then exported. The lack of processing or manufacturing costs Alaskans hundreds of jobs every year.

Q. Why does the U.S. Treasury subsidize logging in the Tongass? How big is this subsidy?

A. Logging in the Tongass National Forest has consistently been a money-loser for the U.S. taxpayers. Since 1982, American taxpayers have spent $1 billion subsidizing the timber industry’s clearcutting in the Tongass.  Over the past twenty-five years, U.S. taxpayers have lost an average of nearly $40 million each year logging this one-of-a-kind national treasure. According to an independent analysis of U.S. Forest Service data, in 2005 the agency spent $48.5 million of taxpayer money on the logging program and logging roads in the Tongass National Forest. Yet, private timber companies paid the federal government only $500,000 in return for the right to clearcut old-growth trees in the Alaskan rainforest, resulting in nearly a $48 million loss.

Q. What is happening on private lands in the Alaska rainforest?

A. A significant percentage of the highest value forest land was selected by Alaska Native corporations as part of the 1971 settlement of aboriginal claims, a total of about 1.7 million acres. These lands are almost all being logged, as quickly as possible, without protections afforded by most environmental laws, including even the rudimentary requirement to log sustainably. In Southeast Alaska, an conservative estimate is that the land will all be cut in another 10 years.