US reinstates road, logging restrictions on Alaska forest

By BECKY BOHRER
Associated Press

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The federal government is reinstating restrictions on road-building and logging on the country’s largest national forest in southeast Alaska. It is the latest move in a long-running fight over the Tongass National Forest. The U.S. Department of Agriculture in late 2021 announced it was beginning the process of repealing a Trump administration-era decision that exempted the Tongass from the so-called roadless rule. The Tongass is a temperate forest roughly the size of West Virginia. Roadless areas account for about one-third of all U.S. national forest system lands. But Alaska political leaders have long sought an exemption to roadless protections for the Tongass.