The U.S. Forest Service has announced its decision to approve the Big Thorne timber sale, the largest industrial clear-cutting project in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest since the pulp mill era. Big Thorne would put more than 120 million board feet of old-growth timber on the chopping block. Allowing such sales to continue will not only accelerate the decimation of old-growth in the Tongass and greatly increase the expanse of degraded wildlife habitat, but it could also lead to an endangered species listing for the Alexander Archipelago wolf, the first ever listing of wildlife species in the Tongass under the Endangered Species Act. More than half of the Tongass’ largest old-growth giants have already been cut. In 2010, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced an agency goal of quickly ending industrial-scale old-growth logging in the Tongass, yet the Forest Service recently proposed another 10-15 years of clear-cutting these ancient trees. Massive timber sales like Big...