Contact: Jack Phelps, Executive Director
907) 225-6114 or 723-5040

The Alaska Forest Association today applauded the U.S. District Court for its ruling Friday that the United States Forest Service met the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when it proposed to sell approximately 40 million board feet (MMBF) of timber from the South Lindenberg project area near Petersburg. The Court said that designing a project to sell a specific volume of timber to supply Alaska’s mills was within the authority granted to the agency by Congress. "The timber industry is very pleased with this decision," said Alaska Forest Association Executive Director, Jack Phelps. "We see it as a vindication of the Forest Service’s attempt to address an important aspect of the Tongass Timber Reform Act of 1990 which instructed them to attempt to meet the demand for timber from the Tongass."

In finding that the Forest Service met NEPA requirements, the ruling said, "the Court concludes that [plaintiff] does not raise sufficiently serious arguments running to the merits to make them fair grounds for litigation . . . this is simply a case in which [plaintiff] asks this Court to substitute its judgment, and [plaintiff’s] judgment, for the USFS’s judgment on where the proper balance is to be struck between market demand for timber and the various environmental protections written into law."

The Court refrained from granting an injunction on South Lindenberg sales, saying in part that, "if an injunction were entered [the industry] would lose another logging season as summer blends into fall and winter. Given the long delay — over four years — while this matter has percolated through the review process, such an irretrievable delay is of great significance."

In its ruling, the Court memorialized the Forest Service assessment that the need for timber in Southeast exceeds 300 MMBF. "AFA’s position is that it takes about 320 MMBF to supply the remaining sawmills in the region, and the Forest Service should make every attempt to sell that amount of timber each year," said Phelps. "The Governor’s Timber Task Force considered this issue in its deliberations in 1996 and concluded that the demand was approximately the same level."

The revised Tongass Land Management Plan, which added tough new restrictions on logging, calls for a maximum harvest of 267 MMBF each year, and the Forest Service’s Region 10 plans to offer about 210 MMBF each year, a level the agency believes can be sustained while protecting the other values considered in the Plan. "The industry is already reeling from the harvest restrictions of TTRA and the Plan," Phelps said. "By reducing the commercial forest land from 2.2 million acres to 676,000 acres, the Forest Service addressed all the wildlife, scenic, recreation and other concerns raised by environmental groups in their complaint. By filing suit on the South Lindenberg project after receiving such protections, environmental groups have shown that their appetite for restrictions on logging is insatiable. They will not be happy until all timber harvest in the Tongass is stopped."

"The Court was clearly attempting to be fair to all the users of the Tongass is this ruling," Phelps said. "Alaska’s forest products companies, their employees and families deserve a chance to continue their livelihoods derived from using the renewable resources of the Tongass. The South Lindenberg project was designed to supply part of their need for raw material, and this decision recognizes their place in the overall culture of the Tongass."

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