FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sept. 24, 1997
Contact: Jack E. Phelps, Executive Director - (907) 225-6114
Alaska Forest Association Files
Administrative
Appeal on the Tongass Land Management Plan
The Alaska Forest Association filed an administrative appeal today citing illegalities in
the process leading to the Record of Decision by the USDA Forest Service on the final
Tongass Land Management Plan.
Alaska Forest Association Executive Director Jack Phelps filed the appeal today with the
Forest Service office in Washington, D.C.
The administrative appeal states the Forest Service failed to meet the requirements of the
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the National Forest Management Act (NFMA).
In a more than 100-page appeal, the Alaska Forest Association cited many illegal actions
on the part of the federal agency, including keeping three key Alaska Forest Supervisors
out of the decision-making process.
Phelps said AFA is willing to work with the Forest Service to correct what the Association
sees as "a skewed process in which there was no balance of resource uses considered
for the Tongass."
The Alaska Forest Association, based in Ketchikan, represents about 300 member and
associate companies involved in Alaska’s forest products industry.
In addition to keeping the three Forest Supervisors out of the decision-making loop during
the TLMP revision process a process the law requires them to direct AFA asserts several
new issues were inserted into the Forest Plan at the time the Record of Decision was
finalized in May, 1997.
Those new issues were not reviewed according to the requirements of NEPA, " Phelps
said.
The new material and changes were not analyzed in the same manner as other information and
were not properly compared in the alternatives. AFA attempted to address the
irregularities in the plan during the comment period on the Revised Supplement to the
Draft Environmental Impact Statement in 1996," Phelps said.
The Forest Service did not take into account the serious illegalities identified in the
AFA comments," he said.
Other illegalities cited in the appeal include:
* The Forest Service violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA)
* The Forest Service failed to consider a reasonable range of alternatives in the plan
* The Forest Service failed to consider important, available information in TLMP
* TLMP is illegally incomplete
AFA’s appeal calls on the Forest Service to withdraw the Record of Decision and
release an amended plan which fully complies with applicable laws and sound science. AFA
recognizes that the TLMP process has already cost taxpayers more than $13 million, and is
hopeful the illegalities and the resulting skewed decision can be corrected during the
administrative appeal, thereby avoiding prolonged legal action.
AFA Briefing Paper on the Tongass Land Management Plan
Administrative Appeal is enclosed,
providing more detailed excerpts from the AFA appeal.
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