Diverse opinions voiced at Roadless Rule meeting

The Forest Service has been hosting numerous public meetings across Southeast Alaska, recently, to share information on proposed changes to the Roadless Rule and to take comments from the public. One such meeting was held in Wrangell last Wednesday, Nov. 6. As readers may know, the Roadless Rule was put in place by the federal government in 2001 as a way to protect undeveloped parts of national forests. It prohibits road construction, repairs, or timber harvests inside of "inventoried roadless areas." According to Ken Tu, who led the discussion at the meeting, there are 58.5 million roadless acres in the United States. 15.5 million of these are found in Alaska, and the Tongass National Forest is home to 9.2 million roadless acres. This is 55 percent of the entire Tongass, according to Tu's presentation.

"In January of 2018 the state of Alaska petitioned the Secretary of Agriculture [Sonny Perdue] to exempt the Tongass National Forest from the Roadless Rule, citing the need for increased economic development opportunities," Tu said, providing a brief history of the current situation. "In August 2018 the Forest Service issued a notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement."

A draft of that environmental impact statement was made available in October of this year. A 60-day public comment period was also opened, which is currently ongoing. The draft EIS proposes six alternatives. Alternative one keeps the 2001 Roadless Rule in place for the Tongass, meaning that the status quo will continue as it has for several years. Alternative six, the "preferred alternative," would be a full exemption. According to Tu, this would open all 9.2 million roadless acres in the Tongass to potential timber harvest or road construction. However, he also said that land management activities in the forest would still be guided by the Forest Service's 2016 Tongass National Forest Plan.

In between Alternatives one and six, four other alternatives have been proposed. Each is unique, and protects and exempts different areas of the Tongass. For example, Alternative two would remove about 113,000 acres from their roadless designation, but would add back 133,000. Alternative three would open up some areas to timber harvests but would maintain roadless area protections as much as feasible. Alternative four would provide "significant additional timber harvest opportunity," according to the presentation, but would keep the Roadless Rule protections in place for scenic areas and watersheds. Alternative five would remove almost 2.3 million acres of roadless area for "maximum additional timber harvest opportunity."

Along with proposing alternatives to the current Roadless Rule, Tu said that the draft EIS examined potential effects each alternative could have on different aspects of life in Southeast Alaska. Every alternative except Alternative one would have a minimal adverse effect, Tu's presentation pointed out. No alternative is expected to impact the fisheries industry in the area, but Alternatives three through six could have minimal negative impact to the visitor industry. On the flip side of the coin, Alternatives three through six would have a beneficial impact to the forest products industry.

After the presentation, the floor was opened for a Q&A session and a hearing to gather testimony from Wrangell's subsistence users. Several of the questions were about the six alternatives, why Secretary Perdue had preferred a full exemption, and whether or not these six alternatives were the only ones available. There is some wiggle room on the alternatives, the presenters said, but that is up to Secretary Perdue.

Several diverse opinions were also voiced during the meeting. Meredith Trainor, with the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, said that getting rid of the Roadless Rule was just an attempt to reclaim the past, when the timber industry was booming in Southeast Alaska, and not really looking towards the region's future.

"In the regional economy of Southeast Alaska logging makes up less than one percent of either our jobs or earnings as a region, whereas tourism and fisheries make up well over 20 percent," she said.

Steve Prysunka, Wrangell's mayor and board member of the Southeast Alaska Power Agency, said that road construction could be a benefit as SEAPA begins looking for new sources of energy production. With recent concerns about Wrangell's power needs, and the current supply of hydropower, finding alternative sources of energy has been one of his priorities.

"We're looking at scaleable projects that allows us to add incrementally to our grid without making a huge commitment to another large-scale hydro project," he said. "Some of the sites are in areas that ... are cost prohibitive. We would have to fly in everything, versus constructing a road up to the sites."

Even during the subsistence hearing, there were differences of opinion on the Roadless Rule. The majority of testimony given by those present at the meeting were in favor of keeping things the way they were. One such testimony was given by Maria Byford. She mentioned that she had arrived late to the meeting because she was canning venison. She said that wildlife, such as deer, require old growth forests for food and shelter. If these parts of the forest were opened to development, it could damage the subsistence lifestyle she and many others in Wrangell live.

"It is such a joy to be able to live a subsistence economy and we have been enjoying, the Tlingits, the natives, the Haida, we've all been enjoying a subsistence economy," Byford said. "I oppose [changes to] the Roadless Rule on the basis that we live in a subsistence society and this is very important to us."

This was not an opinion shared by everyone at the subsistence hearing, however. Wrangell resident DJ McConachie said that the logging industry was misunderstood. Years ago, he said timber had been an important part of Wrangell's economy. When it came to the Roadless Rule, he said that the focus needed to be on the people who had once benefited from logging.

"I want us to think about the people, the people that this affected," he said. "Many years ago there was 225 people working in our mill. That was 225 families here, that was jobs directly. This isn't the indirect job, this isn't going downtown and buying groceries, this isn't all the other trickle-down effects that everything has. So when we think about logging, I think we're putting too much emphasis upon the act.

So that's why I think we need to think about the people."

A final decision on the Roadless Rule is expected to be announced in the summer of 2020, Tu said. The public

comment period will close on Dec. 17. Comments can be made online at http://www.regulations.gov, via email to akroadlessrule@usda.gov, or by regular mail to USDA Forest Service, Attn: Alaska Roadless Rule, P.O. Box 21628, Juneau, AK 99802.

For more information about the Roadless Rule and the Forest Service's work, visitwww.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=54511. A "story map" that allows people to see how the different alternatives may affect their local area can be found at arcg.is/1WObPL.