The top Democrats overseeing the Forest Service asked the inspector general on Monday to investigate whether USDA grant money to Alaska was used by the timber industry to argue for more logging in the Tongass National Forest. The Forest Service is weighing a state request for a full exemption from a 2001 rule that bars road construction and logging in undeveloped forests.
Rep. Ralph Gijalva of the House Natural Resources Committee and Sen. Debbie Stabenow of the Senate Agriculture Committee asked for an investigation of five points, including, “Is it permissible for the (Forest Service) to grant federal funds to a state to enable it to help convince USDA to grant the rule change it had requested?”
Alaska public broadcaster KTOO reported the state received $2 million through USDA’s State Fire Assistance program, usually devoted to fighting or preventing wildfires, to gather information about the proposal to change the roadless rule. “But a state records request reveals that a timber industry group was paid out of that grant for additional input, and some people involved in the rule-making process say that’s not fair.” The Alaska Forest Association received $200,000 from the federal grant, said KTOO, and the trade group also has state contracts for $360,000 to describe how business would be affected by the rule change.
Grijalva and Stabenow say Tongass “is essential to addressing the climate crisis. It is critical that we ensure this taxpayer-funded grant was properly awarded and used.”
“If granted, the proposed rule would exempt the Tongass National Forest from the 2001 Roadless Rule,” says a Forest Service request, issued in October, for public comment.
At nearly 17 million acres, or 26,500 square miles, Tongass is the largest U.S. national forest. Combined with the neighboring Great Bear Rainforest in Canada, it forms the largest temperate rainforest in the world. Great Bear covers 6.4 million hectares, or 24,700 square miles, equal to the size of Ireland.