"Forest Service"

Southeast Alaska is getting special attention in part because the Biden administration wants to reinstitute the Roadless Rule in the Tongass and end large-scale, old-growth logging.

The wood came from a sawmill in Hoonah. The new cabin replaces one that was further along the alpine ridge, another mile south of town.

Soaring lumber prices could be a boon for Southeast Alaska’s struggling timber industry. The pandemic has fueled the demand for both renovations and the new home construction market, and supply has not kept up.

Southeast Alaskans who rely on the Tongass National Forest for food say the Trump administration’s decision to lift the Roadless Rule threatens their way of life.

“I had no idea what that could possibly mean,” said hiker Roald Simonson. The weird sign led him to a learn about how the Forest Service maintains remote outhouses.

The Lena Beach area has been closed, off and on, for seasonal work since 2018. The work wrapping up now is part of the final phase. 

Calls about a brush fire on the beach started rolling in to Capital City Fire/Rescue at about 11:30 a.m. Saturday.

A 5-acre fire destroyed one home in Haines and spread to State Forest land Monday night. The U.S. Forest Service is now assisting the local volunteer fire department.

In March, the U.S. Forest Service signed off on the final environmental review for what could be the largest logging operation in more than a decade in a national forest.

The U.S. Forest Service is moving ahead with one of the largest old growth timber sales Southeast Alaska has seen in years. The project projects harvesting as much as 225 million board feet of old growth lumber.