Timber

The bills would decrease the unemployment insurance tax rate paid by businesses and change regulations on professional licenses, timber sales and geothermal development.

Environmental groups increasingly tried to get the word out to encourage people to weigh-in. Those conversations have taken place in physical spaces and also, increasingly, online.

The state of Alaska used more than $200,000 of that federal grant money, typically designated for fire prevention, to pay an industry group for more perspective on economic timber sales.

Two Congress members want to know why a grant, typically used to prevent wildfires, was given to the state of Alaska to work on this.

At a U.S. House hearing Wednesday, people for and against the rule agreed that removing the roadless restrictions won’t make much difference for an industry that’s already in a steep decline.

You might think that living in the Tongass would make it easy to find whatever sort of wood product you need, but that’s not always the case.

The Trump Administration is seeking a full exemption from the Roadless Rule in the Tongass National Forest. But one logging company says the industry is facing another challenge: Chinese tariffs.

The agency said a Roadless Rule exemption would allow more “flexibility” in how the nation’s largest national forest is managed. 

U.S. Forest Service is seeking a full exemption of the Roadless Rule for the Tongass National Forest in Alaska.