Hands off America's Rainforest Help stop this land grab NOW!

[The Wielding Truth]

http://action.wilderness.org/campaign/tongasscampaign

America's rainforest, the Tongass National Forest, is stunningly beautiful, stretching across islands, fjords and mainland that are part of Southeast Alaska.

In this mist-shrouded forest, black and brown bears grow fat on five different species of Pacific salmon. Bald eagles soar high above waters where sea otters and whales splash.

But new legislation, #S.881, working its way through Congress would transfer much of the ancient forest remaining on the Tongass to Sealaska Corporation for industrial clearcut logging and other private development.

But new legislation working its way through Congress would transfer much of the ancient forest remaining on the Tongass to Sealaska Corporation for industrial clearcut logging and other private development.

Sealaska Corporation has already clearcut some 300,000 acres of the best and biggest trees on the Tongass, exporting the timber to international markets. They mustn't be allowed to take the best of what remains. Take action to stop this legislation.

The Tongass must be protected for its ecological values and to help local communities transition to a more sustainable forest economy. The Wilderness Society has been working with communities and the Forest Service on just such a plan, but this new legislation would undermine it, along with the ancient forest.

Tell Congress to oppose the Sealaska "Sweetheart Deal."

http://action.wilderness.org/campaign/tongasscampaign

Sincerely,

Kathy Kilmer
The Wilderness Society

[NNadir]

1. But...but...but...clear cuts are good places to install wind plants, and solar plants, and let's

not forget that third world technology we need here, wood burning.

[bahrbearian]

2. There are a lot of Pro Clearcut people here at the DU

None of them have ever been in an Ancient Rain forest Grove check them out at this link from last year
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3971999#3975202

[bahrbearian]

3. and this one

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8533580

[The Wielding Truth]

4. I guess he will be known as the "Great Compromiser."

There comes a time to take a stand and stop giving away too much.Time to take a stand.

[rldipaolo]

5. Please Help Save our Communities

I am only one individual, but please take a moment to consider my side of this issue, as what happens soon in Congress will have a tremendous impact on my future – a future that I have worked just as hard to build as any American has. I had to put myself through college while working full-time and earn every penny I’ve ever made through hard work, and the sum of my life’s savings is invested in my home in Edna Bay, the same home I hope to live in to my last day.

If Sealaska is allowed to take ownership of the land they desire here on Kosciusko Island our lives here in Edna Bay will change in many negative ways. As you know we are a very remote community, and depend on subsistence hunting and gathering as much or more than any community in Alaska. We require an ample population of game animals for food, and with a huge amount of their habitat potentially becoming unlivable for them if this deal goes through it is uncertain if we will have sufficient game to survive on. Our hunting and gathering grounds would be reduced to 1/5 of their current size. Our sister communities of Point Baker, Port Protection on Prince Of Wales Island would suffer even more, they are 100% surrounded by the National Forest lands Sealaska wants.

Kosciusko island is unique in all of North America in that it the only one that consists entirely of a karst topography. One of the largest portions of the largest as-of-yet unmapped cave system in North America lies directly beneath the lands that Sealaksa wishes to have on Kosciusko Island. Studies have shown that the underground aquifer, the same one that supplies the drinking water for the residents of Edna Bay, flows via tremendously long and winding limestone caves through an unmapped system. Contaminants from large-scale logging or other development activities in the disputed area could easily contaminate the drinking water supply of Edna Bay. It would be irresponsible to allow any development until thorough scientific studies of the Kosciusko Island aquifer had been conducted and development disallowed in all sensitive areas.

The State of Alaska created the modern community of Edna Bay by laying out the boundaries of our lots and our town in a far-flung island wilderness for the purpose of attracting hard working Americans to live in a community that would by necessity require the natural resources of the surrounding National Forest for their survival. To take those lands away from the stewardship of the American People, and especially the people of Edna Bay, to give it to a corporation that has no intention of improving the lives of Edna Bay residents – and seems to care not that we could be very adversely affected, would be to say that the profits of the Sealaska corporation are more important than the lives of the people of Edna Bay Alaska. There must be another way to both give Sealaska the compensation it is owed, and leave the Tongass National Forest on Kosciusko Island forever untouched by private development.

I humbly request that Senators Murkowski and Begich withdraw their support of S.881 and immediately go to work on a different bill that would compensate Sealaska in some way other than the current one which would put the residents of Edna Bay and other small Southeast communities through extreme hardship during already difficult economic times.