Economics report finds Tongass in a funk

WASHINGTON – A new report from Headwaters Economics, a Bozeman, Mont.-based research firm, finds that the United States Forest Service is continuing to invest at a disproportionate rate into a flagging timber industry in southeast Alaska, while neglecting more sustainable and growing industries like recreation, tourism and fishing.

The Headwaters report, entitled “The Tongass National Forest and the Transition Framework: A New Path Forward,” examines several years of U.S. Forest Service budget and staffing numbers for the Tongass National Forest, America’s largest national forest, as well as t...