The Trump administration advanced Friday a second logging project in the Tongass National Forest, which environmentalists have decried as targeting old-growth forest lands in Alaska.
The Forest Service issued a draft environmental impact statement for the Twin Mountain II timber sale on Prince of Wales Island. The project would allow companies to harvest about 1,655 acres of forest over 15 years to “support local economies and promote healthier forest conditions,” said a spokesperson for the Agriculture Department, which oversees the Forest Service.
Environmental groups and Indigenous communities have railed against the Trump administration’s focus on Tongass logging, particularly old-growth trees that have supported the ecosystem for centuries.
“We will keep showing up and keep fighting for our inherent rights to healthy forests and healthy salmon runs, clean water and access to our cultural and traditional foods,” wrote Mike Jones, president of the Organized Village of Kasaan, in a news release. “The Haida have been here for tens of thousands of years. The Tongass is the northern lung of this planet and we will protect this land for every generation from every walk of life.”
