The 2001 Roadless Rule establishes prohibitions on road construction, road reconstruction, and timber harvesting on 58.5 million acres of inventoried roadless areas on National Forest System lands. The intent of the 2001 Roadless Rule is to provide lasting protection for inventoried roadless areas within the National Forest System in the context of multiple-use management.

NOV. 2020
ANCHORAGE DAILY NEWS

U.S. Department of Agriculture officials published a new regulatory framework for Southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest in the Federal Register Oct. 29 that exempts the massive forest from the national rule established during the final days of the Clinton administration in early 2001.

JUNE 2021
KTOO

The Biden administration appears poised to reinstate a rule dating back to the Clinton White House that restricts new roads in the Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska.

JULY 2021
JUNEAU EMPIRE

Yet another federal policy change over the Tongass National Forest prompted familiar responses from Alaskans who have seen policy over the forest change with each presidential administration.

The Biden administration announced Thursday it was ending large-scale sales of old-growth timber and would seek to reimplement the Roadless Rule protections on the forest lifted at the end of the Trump administration. Alaskans were quick to react.

Environmental groups lauded the move while those who want to see move development in the state in general and Tongass in particular, including Gov. Mike Dunleavy, said federal restrictions were preventing Alaskans from the opportunity to work.

In this special conversation, Cody talks with Dan Cannon, the Tongass Forest Program Manager at the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council. Dan explains how exempting the Tongass National Forest from the Roadless Rule will affect the forest, its inhabitants and the economy in Southeast Alaska. The Roadless Rule is a federal safeguard that restricts logging and road building on roughly 58 million acres of national Forest Service lands. The Tongass accounts for about 17 million acres of that land.