JUNEAU - A decision by the Bush Administration to exempt prime timberland in the Tongass National Forest from Clinton-era logging protections was praised in Southeast Alaska Dec. 23.
Steve Seley owns Pacific Log and Lumber in Ketchikan, one of the few sawmills still operating in the Panhandle. He recently completed a $1.4 million expansion and was counting on the decision to stay in business.
"We had to move ahead and just be confident that this would happen," Seley said. "Like I said, Merry Christmas - this couldn't have come at a better time."
The Bush administration opened 300,000 more acres of the Tongass National Forest Dec. 23 to possible logging or other development, part of 9.3 million acres off limits to road building.
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Clinton's so-called "roadless rule" surprised many Alaskans when it included portions of the 17 million acre-Tongass - the nation's largest forest - and the Chugach National Forest.
The Bush administration's move is part of an out-of-court settlement with Alaska, which sued to remove both forests from the rule.
Gov. Frank Murkowski - a Republican who continued the lawsuit brought by his Democrat predecessor - said it was good news for the struggling Southeast economy.
"This was a vital step in our plan to rebuild the Southeast timber industry. The Tongass should again support a vibrant timber industry," Murkowski said.
There are only about 650 remaining timber related jobs in Southeast Alaska currently, down from a decade ago when logging employed about 5,000 people, the Murkowski administration said.
And the 2001 roadless rule came at a time when Alaska's timber industry was already being squeezed out by declines in federal wood and increasing harvest costs. An estimated 80 percent of the available timber harvest in Southeast is under federal control.
"It was just essentially another nail in the economic coffin," said Ketchikan Mayor Bob Weinstein.
Ketchikan has been hardest hit by timber declines and now relies on tourism and salmon fishing for most of its economic engine, Weinstein said.
He called the Bush decision both important for local residents and ultimately the correct move.
"We thought it was very inappropriate that the Tongass was included in the first place," Weinstein said.
In their court battle, state officials contended the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act promised that no more federal land would be locked away from development.
Lifting the rule will affect only about 3 percent of the previously roadless area in the Tongass, but that takes in a large swath of old-growth trees coveted by the industry.
That fact wasn't lost on the environmental group that sued the Forest Service earlier this month to block six timber sales in the Tongass.
"The Bush administration is just catering to its friends in the timber industry by adopting this rule today," said Tom Waldo, an attorney with Earthjustice.
About 250,000 public comments were filed on the Forest Service proposal to change the rules and 90 percent were opposed to it, Waldo said.
"Excluding the Tongass from a rule protecting the national forests is like excluding Yellowstone from a rule affecting national parks," Waldo said. "The Tongass is the crown jewel of the forest system."
Environmentalists may challenge the rule changes after they are published in the Federal Register, Waldo said.
Meanwhile, Seley anticipates ramping up his mill to finally operate an entire shift of 28-30 people until timber sales are spawned by the new decision.
By next summer, the mill could increase its work force by another 30 workers in addition to doubling the number of loggers it hires during harvest, Seley said.
Murkowski administration officials have also been in talks with an Oregon company to reopen the shuttered veneer plant in Ketchikan. They hope this will lure more jobs to the region.
"This is great news for the timber industry," said Owen Graham, executive director of the Alaska Forest Association.
