More than three million acres of forest will be made available for logging under a new land-use management plan for the Tongass National Forest in Alaska.
The Tongass Land and Resource Management Plan, from the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service, will see development land use designations (LUD) totalling 3,448,972 acres or 20% of America’s largest national forest.
This includes timber production and will allow 267 million board feet to be sold each year from the forest over the next decade.
As well as looking to develop the management of the Tongass forest, officials said that the plan was intended to ensure the long-term economic and social future of communities “embedded within it”.
“Because people in this country, as well as the rest of the world, require a lot of timber products, the wood product industry offers one of the best ways to retain that,” said Sarah Palin, governor of the state of Alaska, and Forest Service chief Abigail Kimbell in a joint statement.
“Helping businesses succeed is important to both the health of the forest and its people.”
Other LUDs outlined in the plan include recreation, special interest and old growth habitats, which will help create a “rich, healthy forest”.
