KETCHIKAN -- A federal appeals court has affirmed an earlier court ruling that the Logjam Timber Sale on Prince of Wales Island can move forward.

The Ketchikan Daily News reported the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an appeal by the Tongass Conservation Society.

The sale would allow the harvesting of 3,422 acres of mostly old-growth forest and the construction of 22 miles of road in the Tongass National Forest. Appeals court judges said in their decision Thursday that the conservation organization had failed to show that the U.S. Forest Service's environmental review of the sale was seriously flawed.

A spokesman for the conservation society said it's unlikely to appeal.

Viking Lumber Co. had pursued the sale and state officials say it was necessary for the company's survival.