• Rainforest crunch Rainforest crunch Just in time for the holidays, the Bush administration announced plans for a little tree trimming. The trees they plan to trim are in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. It is the only remaining temperate rainforest
• Rainforest crunch
Rainforest crunch
Just in time for the holidays, the Bush administration announced plans for a little tree trimming. The trees they plan to trim are in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest.
It is the only remaining temperate rainforest in North America, and one of the few left on the planet. Much of its tall timber was seedlings when this country was founded, some dating to 300 years before Columbus. Mark Rey, who oversees the Forest Service as a Department of Agriculture undersecretary, said the decision was based on “the best scientific evidence,” striking a balance between protecting the forest and the livelihoods of Southeast Alaska residents. Rey might be more believable, were it not for his previous occupation — timber-industry lobbyist and advocate of logging the national forests.
These trees — at least 300,000 acres of old-growth forest — are the last remnants of an environment that once flourished across the northwest. What’s more, the Tongass contains numerous archaeological sites that document the arrival of the first North Americans more than 10,000 years ago.
Cutting the trees would hurt the economy more than it would help. Tourism employs nearly twice as many Alaskans as farming, forestry, hunting and mining combined. And tourists don’t come to see cut forests.
The Christmas season announcement seemed timed to bury the news. But it will take more than stealth to hide President George W. Bush’s abysmal environmental record. What we heard last week in an Alaskan forest was the sound of environmental protections crashing to the ground.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
