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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Down To Earth

Tuesday Video

On the same day the Obama administration withdrew a Bush hail mary designed to increase logging in Northwest forests home to northern spotted owls and salmon, we watched a destructive contradiction pass: They approved the sale of timber in a roadless national forest in Alaska, specifically the Tongass National Forest. Tongass is a 17 million acre temperate rain forest in southeast Alaska, occupied by both endangered species and native Alaskan tribes, the largest temperate rain forest in the United States. The news is especially shocking after President Obama supported the roadless rule in his campaign. Not only is logging killing the forests but taxpayers are paying through the teeth. According to the Wilderness Society, “American taxpayers have not only watched as the Tongass has been picked apart by road building and logging, they've paid for the privilege. The tab extends beyond $750 million over 20 years. In a single year alone, the Forest Service spent $36 million on the Tongass timber program and got back in revenues only $1 million. Subsidies for logging roads account for nearly half of timber program costs annually.” Below, you’ll find a video where the landscape and wildlife in the Tongass Forest is on full display. And so is the destruction that logging has caused. Watch video HERE.



Down To Earth

The DTE blog is committed to reporting and sharing environmental news and sustainability information from across the Inland Northwest.