Environment

State seeks to join Forest Service in legal defense of big Southeast timber sale

JUNEAU -- The state of Alaska is weighing in on the side of the federal government in court, hoping to help keep alive a U.S. Forest Service timber sale in Southeast, and with it what's left of a once-booming industry.

The Forest Service in August announced the Big Thorne sale on Prince of Wales Island, with nearly 150 million board feet of timber badly needed by local mills, but was almost immediately challenged in court by the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council and other environmental groups.

Gov. Sean Parnell announced this week that Alaska would seek to join the case on the side of the Forest Service.

"It is important that we take an active role in the litigation and represent the interests of Alaska's families and communities," he said.

But SEACC executive director Malena Marvin dismissed Parnell's concerns.

"If Parnell cared about long-term economic prosperity in Southeast communities, he would support a forest plan that keeps Tongass timber local," she said.

Under the Forest Service plan, half the harvested timber will be exported, she said.

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Alaska Department of Law attorney Tom Lenhart said that while he's confident the Forest Service will aggressively defend the Big Thorne sale in court, Alaska wants to have its say as well, especially considering the role it has played in Big Thorne so far.

"The state of Alaska and the U.S. Forest Service are actually cooperating agencies. We have had tremendous involvement in the development of this sale," he said.

That means the state may have its own issues to defend or want to specifically defend the work of its staff.

"Our wildlife biologists, our forestry people, they all worked hand-in-hand with the Forest Service in developing these sales," Lenhart said.

Alaska is also worried that federal timber money for local schools and roads could be hit hard as well, and there are no other big Tongass timber sales that could make up the lost income if Big Thorne is overturned.

The state's participation in the case also preserves its ability to participate in the case later in the process if the Forest Service were to lose the case and decline to appeal.

That's what happened with a case challenging the so-called "roadless rule," and the state joining in that case early in the process enabled it to continue even when the federal attorneys dropped out, he said.

"We have to be in now to be able to do that," Lenhart said.

Southeast's last remaining large sawmill is Viking Lumber on Prince of Wales Island. A lack of recent timber sales means that Big Thorne may be crucial to keeping it open, Lenhart said.

"I think Viking's timber supply is very, very low," he said.

Marvin said SEACC is trying to support small, local mills that don't threaten Southeast fishing and tourism industries.

"Sean Parnell seems to have forgotten that even in its heyday, the Tongass timber program operated at a deficit, subsidizing corporate clear-cuts with federal dollars. That's a highly inefficient, big-government method of propping up a few companies," she said.

Lenhart said he hopes the timber sale could win final court approval in time for logging next spring.

Contact Pat Forgey at pat@alaskadispatch.com.

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