"Timber Sale"

The initial Thomas Bay timber sale proposal was for about 22 million board feet. But after a few years of public process, that has shrunk to 12.6 million board feet to be harvested through a patchwork of areas over several years.

But a federal judge agreed with the plaintiffs who argued that the federal agency didn’t follow the law when it approved the timber sales, because it hadn’t provided site-specific information on areas that could be logged.

The ruling effectively sends the feds back to square one, triggering a fresh environmental review under the landmark National Environmental Policy Act.

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.

Petersburg’s borough assembly Monday voted down a resolution calling for a forensic audit of two Tongass National Forest timber sales. Back in May, the assembly also voted against sending a letter on lost revenue from the sales and the impact to Petersburg.

The University of Alaska is in negotiations for the biggest timber sale in the Haines area in recent history. The 10-year, sale is estimated to yield around 100 million board-feet of timber.

The state just sold timber from its Southeast Alaska forest to the region’s largest mill. It’s part of a multi-agency effort to keep the area’s logging industry alive. But some say it’s time to let it go.

A large timber sale on the Tongass National Forest is not as large as it was advertised. An environmental watchdog organization has uncovered a U.S. Forest Service document showing a 12-million-board-foot mistake on the Big Thorne timber sale on Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska.

With a federal land swap in the works, the Alaska Mental Health Trust says they’ll pass on the controversial timber sale.

Timber sales are intended to stimulate the local economy, but timber industry groups say that the U.S.Forest Service hasn’t made enough Tongass logs available to keep the industry alive.