WASHINGTON — The U.S. Forest Service decided Friday to reduce by half the maximum amount of timber cutting allowed in Alaska's Tongass National Forest, the largest temperate rain forest on Earth.
Still, the decision will open previously untouched acres of the forest to chain saws at a time when logging there remains perhaps the most controversial in the country.
President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore made their opposition to clear-cutting in the Tongass an important element of their campaign-year environmental program. And despite a continuing decline in the allowable cut, the Forest Service's announcement prompted sharp complaints from environmentalists and loggers.
The plan that was devised for the vast forest--at 17 million acres it covers more land than all of the national forests in timber-rich Oregon--leaves unclear the ultimate role the administration sees for the Tongass: Are its stands of ancient Sitka spruce and hemlock money-making timber for the declining mills of southeastern Alaska, where they have been a mainstay of the local economy? Or should their harvest be restricted to leave the forest untouched?
"This is the forest the president said he'd save," said Nathaniel Lawrence, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's forestry project.
But echoing a complaint raised by the Alaska Forest Assn., Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) said in a written statement: "This huge reduction [in logging] means no real benefit for the animals and plants, but it does mean lost potential for Alaskans who work for a living in the wood products industry."
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The Forest Service plan calls for cutting as much as 267 million board feet a year, down from the 450 million board feet allowed on average in each of the past 10 years. A board foot, the standard measure of timber, is one square foot of lumber one inch thick.
The number of trees needed to produce 1 million board feet--enough to build about 100 homes--cover about 40 acres of Tongass forest, where the spruce, hemlock and cedar form a cathedral-like canopy dripping with moss.
Under the plan that guides management of the forest for the next 10 years, the Forest Service would put 1.1 million acres that are considered critical to wildlife off limits to loggers.
It would also provide 1,000-foot buffers along beaches and river mouths as wildlife travel corridors and habitat protection.
