• Forests

Green Groups Urge Biden Administration to Protect Old Growth Forests

• 30 by 30
• Forests
• old growth forests
• Tongass National Forest

Environmentalists are urging President Biden to prioritize old-growth forests in his plans to protect 30% of all lands and waters by 2030. Following the Trump administration’s attacks on the Tongass National Forest and a devastating wildfire season in California’s old-growth Sequoia forests, advocates say that restoring and improving protections for these massive carbon sinks is crucial to fighting climate change. Meanwhile, tree-planting […]

• People

Interview of the Week: Adam Kolton of the Alaska Wilderness League

• Alaska
• Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
• oil and gas drilling
• Pebble Mine
• Roadless Rule
• Tongass National Forest

This week, just in time for Thanksgiving, we talk with Adam Kolton, the Executive Director of the Alaska Wilderness League about the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Arctic Indigenous Communities, and conserving Alaskan wilderness.  Watch the entire interview.  Here are a few highlights: On the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: “This is the area where hundreds of […]

• Land

11 Alaska Tribes Petition Forest Service to Increase Tribal Consultation

• Alaska
• indigenous people
• Native Alaskan Tribes
• Tongass
• Tongass National Forest

by Amy Lupica, ODP Contributing Writer In response to the Trump administration’s move to open the Tongass National Forest to logging, 11 Southeast Alaska Native tribes have petitioned the USDA to implement a new rule that would require the Forest Service to consult with them on land use decisions.  The rule would force the Forest […]

• Forests

Trump To Reopen Largest National Forest to Development, Rejecting Environmental and Cultural Importance

• Alaska
• logging
• Native Alaskan Tribes
• Tongass National Forest

by Amy Lupica, ODP Contributing Writer On Friday, just one day before National Public Lands Day, the Trump administration moved to expand development in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, the largest national forest in the United States as well as the largest remaining temperate rainforest in the world. About 55% of the forest is currently protected […]

• Climate Change

Trump Dealt Two Blows By Courts — One on Timber and One on Climate Cap and Trade

• auto emissions
• cap and trade
• climate change
• greenhouse gas emission
• Roadless Rule
• Tongass National Forest

Federal Courts this week reversed two decisions by the Trump Administration, one in Alaska that would delay opening up 1.8 million acres of the Tongass National Forest in Alaska to logging and another in California that allows California’s program to reduce vehicle emissions in collaboration with the Canadian province of Quebec to continue.

Why This Matters:  Both these decisions will help the U.S. to combat climate change.

• Politics

Heroes of the Week: WECAN Indigenous Women Working to Save the Tongass Forest

• Alaska
• Tlingit
• Tongass National Forest

Greta Thunberg has nothing on these ladies!  Last March, they traveled 3000 miles from their home in Alaska to lobby Congress to continue to conserve the Tongass National Forest, one of the largest carbon sinks on the planet.  The Trump Administration is considering lifting current protections on the area.  These Tlingit women were part of […]