Alaskans had a uniformly negative reaction to the announcement by the Department of Agriculture that it is formulating an interim policy regarding road building in the nationl forest system. The interim policy is likely to have an adverse effect on Alaska's already besieged timber industry. The draft policy, being developed by Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck, calls for a two-year moratorium on road building activity in any area of a national forest larger than 5,000 acres if it is inventoried as roadless. There is mounting pressure on the White House by environmental groups to push the minimum size down to 1,000 acres.

Reaction from Alaska's Congressional delegation -- (see Senator Murkowski's Letter & Representative Young's Letters) -- and from Governor Knowles was swift and firm. Alaska should be exempt from any roadless policy that includes a moratorium, is the unanimous conclusion of Alaska's political leaders. "Given [that] the Record of Decision for TLMP was signed only 6 months ago and the appeals process is underway, it would be unfair play for anyone to use political leverage to undermine the process," wrote Knowles in a letter to Secretary Glickman . "A precipitous interim action, made behind closed doors outside of Alaska, will not be tolerated. Should this occur, the state will leave no stone unturned in our effort to prevent this interim policy being implemented through federal fiat."

  The leadership of the Alaska Legislature has also weighed in on the issue. Senate President Mike Miller and House Speaker Gail Phillips sent a letter to Secretary Glickman, pointing out that "millions of acres are already protected in the Tongass under Wilderness designations, Old Growth Habitat Reserves, and Land Use Designation ( LUD ) II set-asides. There simply is no need for further 'roadless' protections in Alaska's national forests," they wrote. Resolutions have been introduced in both the House and Senate, calling on the federal government to exempt Alaska from the Forest Service interim action.

The Forest Service is saying that it needs the new policy to protect its roads budget from further incursions by a Republican Congress bent on reducing the budget. A comprehensive analysis of the entire Forest Service roads program is needed to develop priorities for spending, Dombeck 's office says. The timber industry agrees that a comprehensive roads program is a good idea, but rejects the notion that it should be done under a moratorium.

The Forest Service's own numbers indicate the profound economic impact a moratorium would have on timber-related communities and on the agencies own program receipts (income). Over a two-year period, the proposed policy would eliminate more than 12,000 jobs and result in lost revenues to the government of $160 million. Many of the lost jobs will be in the small business sector, with smaller logging companies and mills often the first to be crippled by reduced supply.

In addition to job losses, the interim policy would create economic problems for many communities that depend on the 25% of federal timber sales receipts that are transferred to the communities to support local schools and road maintenance. Already, many communities in the West are reeling from the plummeting revenue levels that have resulted from reduced timber offerings. Among the areas hardest hit are parts of the Pacific Northwest not covered by the President's Option 9, communities in the Southwest affected by the Mexican spotted owl listing, and communities in Southeast Alaska.

Under the recently completed revision of the Tongass Land Management Plan, the Forest Service plans to offer approximately 210 mmbf per year over the next several years. This is already below the level needed to sustain the remaining mills in Southeast Alaska. The proposed roadless moratorium could take an additional 100-200 mmbf per year off the table, effectively eliminating the Southeast Alaska timber industry which depends on trees purchased from the national forest.

The recent revision of TLMP took into consideration roadless areas along with a plethora of other issues, and reduced the commercial forest lands available for timber harvest on the Tongass by more than 60%. This public planning process, though flawed by political machinations unrelated to science, is the proper venue to consider the issue of roadless entry. The decision of the Clinton Administration to override the plan by an arbitrary interim roadless policy is a blatant attempt to give the radical environmentalists what little they didn't already get under TLMP.

AFA joins Senators Stevens and Murkowski, Congressman Young, Governor Knowles and the Alaska State Legislature in protesting the Forest Service's proposed roads moratorium. On this issue, Alaskans are united.