jex

Dear NRDC BioGems Defender,

We urgently need your help to protect Alaska's Tongass National Forest, which is now imperiled by timber industry allies in the Bush administration.

The Timber Products Company, which makes various types of plywood, veneer and laminate products, is currently negotiating with government officials in Alaska to re-open a veneer mill in Ketchikan that would jeopardize wild and roadless areas in the Tongass by increasing demand for ancient trees.

The Forest Service is exploiting the possible re-opening of the mill as an
excuse to undermine the "roadless rule" that protects our wild national
forests -- and to exempt the Tongass from the rule altogether.

Please go to
http://www.savebiogems.org/tongass/takeaction.asp?step=2&item=10105
and send a message urging the president and CEO of the Timber Products Company to withdraw immediately from negotiations to re-open the mill.

The Tongass National Forest's 17 million acres of glacial fjords, volcanic
mountains, misty rainforests, giant conifers and luxurious tundra contain rich salmon spawning grounds and prime grizzly bear and wolf habitat. They also boast the world's densest population of bald eagles.

In 2002, the U.S. Forest Service spent $34 million preparing logging projects and building logging roads in the Tongass -- it makes no sense to increase these taxpayer subsidies to industry by promoting even more logging.

But the potential re-opening of the Ketchikan mill would help the Forest
Service justify any decision to exempt the Tongass from protection and clear the way for chainsaws.

Please defend the Tongass by going to
http://www.savebiogems.org/tongass/takeaction.asp?step=2&item=10105
right now and telling the president of the Timber Products Company to withdraw from negotiations to re-open the Ketchikan veneer mill. Tell him that if he continues to endanger America's greatest temperate rainforest, you will work with NRDC to lodge protests with the retail stores that sell his company's products.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

John H. Adams
President
Natural Resources Defense Council

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Thanks for your support

Jex

Axiom

Thanks for lettin me know about this jex...my letter is already sent. Keep fightin the good fight!

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Wolfie

Actually logging is a way to keep forests healthy. Unless the companies logging this area are corrupt and sinster, logging companies replant trees to replace the ones they cut down. They also clear out the brush and other vegetation that causes forest fires.

Also, who really cares about "ancient trees"? So what if they been standing for 100 years? As long as the logging companies replace the natural resource they are harvesting (which they do), then I don't see the big deal about cutting down a tree.

CingularDuality

Here's the Tongass road analysis: http://www.fs.fed.us/r10/tongass/management%20news/tra/tongassroadanalysis.pdf

And regarding "ancient trees": old growth trees provide many things to the local ecology that new growth simply cannot. Most logging contracts are very specific about the number of old growth trees that are allowed to be harvested.

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Wolfie

I went to the NRDC's website. Saw some things I thought were interesting

(like blaming Detroit for the low mpg vehicles out there today when they should be blaming consumers for creating the demand for such vehicles).

Has some good things there also.

Will need to check out Cing's link to see if the data supports my initial assumption that the NRDC is just having a knee jerk reaction.

Wolfie

Really? Didn't know that. Ecology and Biology are not my strongest topics of knowledge.

dragon

My question and yes it is serious is

Is Tongass pronounced (Tounge a$$) ?

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Pompa

Are you referring to the brushes and dead trees that serve as some species habitat? Did you know that the livingcycle of say a spruce(?) is about 6-8(?)00 years ('til its decomposed). That cycle is taken in several steps and the tree still serves a purpose after its "death". Trees grown for logging is cut down at an age of about 60-100 years, wich means that most of those cycles get cut away with them, leaving large birds as owls (I'm not going for a dictionary to look up names of species right now). A forest consisting of evenly spaced pinetrees isnt all that great but for the loggingindustry.
Here in Sweden we're having a debate about reducing the moosepopulation due to the economic damage they do to the loggingindustry by chewing on the trees...one thing that's not mentioned too often is that the mooses are eating the pineplants because their regular food is cleared out as "weed"...

oh and btw. I ain't no pothead treehugger. I'm a hunter.

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fr1j0l3

umm... no.

Since before columbus was here, the forests were PLENTY healthy.
I think what you mean to say is that logging old growth and underbrush helps protect HOMES that exist in the forest from disaster when a forest fire occurs. Forest fires are a very natural occurance. It's a cycle of life that healthy woodlands go through. Because we put houses in the middle of it gives us a right to modify what a "healthy" forest is so that our belongings and homes are not destroyed?

Thanks for posting that jex.. letter is en route.

Axiom

Bingo Fri...
Wolf, even after an old tree falls down naturally, it then provides MANY resources to everything from mammals to insects. Logging does not keep forests healthy.

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jex

Nature is the only qualifier for protecting the forests. Did you know for instance, dead wood makes up at least 50% of the forest and is needed. Getting rid of deadwood leaves no habitat for insects, wasps, birds etc. Each part of the forest is essential to the forest as each plays it's part.

Here in the UK we no longer have ancient woods/forests - they all got chopped down . In a local patch of woods the local council decided they'd 'clean up' the woods by taking out all the dead wood. Was it not for me and my friends they would have left none. Now at least they have piles of dead wood which at least is a compromise.

The frightening part is that the environmental officers for the council don't have a clue. We heard one say that the animal life will 'find someplace else to go'.

What a retared attitude! Keep that one up and eventually there will be no place left to go and I believe this is the attitude that needs to be changed if we are to enjoy an environment.

You should be proud to have an ancient forest.

Thanks for the support guys

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Jex

Daxx

It's what I read...

I imagine it's pronounced tong-gass

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Geisha

In fact, I think they actually perform controlled burns in 10-yr cycles on Yellowstone & some of the other national parks, so that they don't run into the raging damage that occurs when they prevent fires for too long? (some Discovery special I saw YEARS ago, so not certain it still goes on)

Logging may keep individual trees healthy but I'm not sure about the forest as a whole...

Pompa

correctomundo

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