With Protections Restored for Alaska’s Tongass, What’s Next?
The Biden administration's plans for the old-growth forest and the region's economy have tribal leaders cautiously optimistic.
When he was in his mid-20s, Joel Jackson helped start the company which would lay the roads that enabled old-growth logging on the remote Southeast Alaska island where he grew up, a part of thevastTongassNational Forest. “That was the only well-paying job that I could get,” he recalls. Butit wasn’t untilthosetribal-ledtimber operations shut down decades laterthat Jackson, now aged 65 and president of the Organized Village ofKake, a federally recognized tribe, fullyrealizedindustrial logging’simpacts on the forest and those who rely on it, reflecting:“Whatthe hell did we just do?”
Today, the scarcity of jobs in thisremoteregion persists, as do the scars ofclear-cutloggingin certainsections oftheTongass, alargely intacttemperate rainforest blanketing some 16.7 million acres of islands and coastalongAlaska’s panhandle. But Jackson and other Alaska Native leaders in the area are welcoming with cautious optimismrecent federal announcements to protect theTongass,engagewithTribes,Ի invest insustainabledevelopmentprojects.
On July 15, thesteps toend industrial old-growth logging intheTongass,the country’s largest national forestԻ an important stopover formanymigratorybirds, and to usher in a new vision for the forestԻ its communitiesthatfocuseson“forest restoration, recreation, and resilience.”The U.S. Department of Agriculture(USDA), whichincludesthe Forest Service,plans toroll back a Trump-era policy that exempted9.3 million acres of theTongassfrom thelong-contested2001 “Roadless Rule,”whichprohibitsroad building in currently roadless areas of national forests. It also outlined a new“Southeast Alaska Sustainability Strategy”that comes with $25 million in federal funding for economic and community development.
Over the next few weeks, the USDA is assembling a local interagency team “that will consult with Tribes and Alaska Native corporations and listen and work with local partners and communities to identify priorities and practical opportunities for both short term andlong terminvestments,” according to USDA spokesperson Larry Moore.How exactlytheseinvestmentscouldshapethe future of the forest, a major carbon sink and home to endemic wildlife including theԻ ,will depend on the USDA’s guidelines and individual tribes’ and communities’ specific needs. A common theme, however, is improving basic infrastructure and lowering the high cost of living and working in the isolated region—for starters, making food, energy, shipping, and internet more accessible. Jackson says he personally would like to see renewable energy projects or perhaps a new industry like kelp farming come toKake, though the latter depends on cheaper means of shipping out products.
Still, tribal leaders say the groundwork is in place to take advantage of thisunexpectedopportunityfor investment.
“I think you're seeing this perfect storm of alignment happening right now with theTribes and the federal government, even the conservation groups, all coming to the table,” saysRichardChalyeeÉeshPeterson, president of theCentral Council of Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska.
For the past decade, an important vehicle for buildingsuchmomentum away from extractive industries and toward healthier communities has been the, a collaborative and eclectic regional network whose work ranges from food and energy to fisheries and forest management.In its recent announcement, the USDA said it hopes to complement thenetwork’sefforts, includingthe Hoonah Native Forest Partnership. ThisIndigenous-ledcommunity planning process pulls together the region’s disparate landowners and stakeholders—including historical adversarieslike private landownersԻ environmental groups. Together, theycollectively review scientific data and coordinate proposed forest management projectsfor optimal impactat the landscapelevel.For instance, that couldmean figuring outwhen,where, and howto thin outdense stands of second-growthtrees toopen uppassagesfor deer and bear, regardless of who owns the land.
RobertStarbardisHoonah Indian Associationtribaladministrator and co-founderof theHoonah Native ForestPartnership.Shouldtheyreceive a slice of the new funds,Starbardsays themoneywould likelygotoward restoringhigh-prioritystreams where salmonproductivity has dropped due tologging decades earlier.
Anothertribal-led project that may benefit from the recentannouncementis Southeast Alaska’s nascent Indigenous Guardians program. Last October, theCentral Council, a regional tribe,with the Forest Service to createanetworkof Indigenousstewardsworking in their communities tomonitor, manage, restore, and protect the lands, waters, and other resources.The network aims toempower local people totranslate their longstanding traditional knowledge of the land into the currency of Western science and,with that data,raise needs more quickly and efficiently tothestate and federal government.Collaboratingwith a range of partners, the Central Council is hoping other tribeswillfollow suitԻ build on existing capacity, such asprogramsforwater quality monitoring andAPP change adaptation planning.
WhileStarbardsays the federal government’s strategy to support such efforts is worthwhile and well-intentioned, he doesn't think it goes far enough to meet the region's needs. “Itreally does miss the mark that theTongassas a whole is in need of a paradigm shift of how we're going to use it,” he says. He and others emphasized that $25 million won’t go very far among the 19 Tribes and many communities spread across the massive forest. And theTongass’sneeds are only rising as the APP changes; this rainforest is already seeing warmer, drier summers affect its salmon runs, according toStarbard.
Critical to the future of theTongass, tribal leaderssay, will beovercoming theyears of broken promises and political back-and-forthwith the region’s Indigenous peoples. Some Tribes say they aredone with being “consulted”Իinstead arehereto“co-govern”the forestthat haslongbeentheir home.
“You want to talk about the future of theTongass,” saysthe Central Council’sPeterson, “first ... you have to look back in time, because that's how we managed theTongassfor over 10,000 years.”