Anchorage Daily News

WASHINGTON -- More than 3 million acres in Alaska's Tongass National Forest would remain open to logging and road building under a Bush administration decision that supporters believe will keep Alaska's timber industry afloat but some environmentalists fear will devastate the forest.

The Bush administration on Friday released a management plan for the Southeast forest, the largest in the country at nearly 17 million acres. The plan would leave about 3.4 million acres open to logging and other development, including about 2.4 million acres that are now remote and roadless. About 663,000 acres are in areas considered most valuable for timber production.

The plan would keep the allowed logging in the Tongass the same while specifying some new areas for protection.

Opinions are mixed.

Not all environmentalists consider it a step backward.

"This approach is creative and represents a step in the right direction," said Tim Bristol, the state director of Trout Unlimited, a sportfishing advocacy group.

The plan, for example, would remove several areas from the timber base that had been identified as key wildlife corridors between heavily logged areas or around geographic barriers to wildlife movement. These areas overlapped with critical local hunting and traditional Native use areas near Tenakee Springs, Ketchikan, Kake and Petersburg, environmentalists said.

Alaska Regional Forester Denny Bschor, who approved the new Tongass plan, said its goals are to sustain the forest's diversity and health, provide livelihoods and subsistence for Alaska residents and ensure a source of recreation and solitude for forest visitors.

"There may be disappointment that the (allowable timber sales) hasn't increased or diminished, depending on your viewpoint," Bschor said. "What is significant in the amended plan however, is our commitment to the state of Alaska to provide an economic timber sale program which will allow the current industry to stabilize, and for an integrated timber industry to become established."

The new plan adds 90,000 acres to old-growth reserves and protects 47,000 acres considered most vulnerable to development. It also pledges the Forest Service to work with Indian tribes to protect and maintain sacred sites.

But some environmentalists said the plan continues a Bush policy of catering to the timber industry.

"It leaves 2.4 million acres of wild, roadless backcountry areas open to clear cutting and new logging roads," said Tom Waldo, an attorney for the environmental group Earthjustice.

The plan would allow timber sales of up to 267 million board feet a year -- enough for nearly 27,000 two-bedroom homes. Less than 20 million board feet were logged last year. A board foot is the volume of a piece of wood 1 foot square and 1 inch thick.

Bschor said 267 million board feet was a maximum cap for annual logging -- not a goal of the plan.

"It's probably not likely that we're going to come close to that" in the foreseeable future, he said. A more realistic goal is 100 million board feet a year-- and even that will take major revamping of the Alaska timber industry, Bschor said.

The plan takes effect 30 days after it is published in the Federal Register, which Bschor expected by mid-February. Groups have 90 days to issue a legal challenge.

Daily News reporter Elizabeth Bluemink contributed to this article.

ANOTHER LOOK: More details, along with maps, are available through the Forest Service at

tongass-fpadjust.net/FPA_ROD.html

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