The Tongass is America’s Salmon Forest
An impressive coalition of folks in the industry have been working for some time now to preserve and protect the waterways of the Tongass National Forest – you can read about their work here at American Salmon Forest.
They’ve identified over 70 areas within the Tongass NF that should be specifically protected from further development and yet still allow existing access and use – legislation is needed to permanently protect these vital areas, though there is a way to accomplish some key objectives short of legislation via Forest Service Management Plan Amendments.
Making Progress With the Forest Service via Management Plan Amendments
From a recent TU update out of Alaska –
The amendment process for the Tongass Land Management Plan (TLMP) may offer an unprecedented opportunity to increase conservation measures for high-value fish watersheds on the Tongass National Forest (TNF) in Southeast Alaska.
The 15 member Tongass Advisory Committee (TAC), which was composed of three conservation members, one fisheries member, three members of the general public and 8 largely development-focused members, unanimously recommended that high value fish watersheds of the Tongass 77 proposal should receive higher levels of protection. The TAC was formed to aid in the amendment process of the TLMP, the guiding document for Tongass administration.
The TNF leadership will be conducting a public process to identify amendments to the Forest Plan. The Draft EIS was released November 20th – Our review of this plan tells us that the Forest Services has proposed changes that put fish and other renewable resource values on more even footing with timber for the first time and greatly improves management of fish and wildlife habitat in our largest national forest. A 90 day public comment period is now open, giving the American public the opportunity to tell the Forest Service how important it is to conserve these high-value salmon and trout watersheds.
The “Tongass 77” proposal currently includes 73 watersheds, totaling 1.89 million acres. All of these watersheds are ranked in the top 25% of Tongass watersheds for salmon spawning and rearing habitat, support a diversity of fish species and are substantial contributors to overall salmon harvests. In total, they represent 23% of the identified salmon and trout habitat on the Tongass on only 12% of its land base. They are all in development status in the current Tongass Forest Plan and we believe it is the time for that to change.
The TLMP amendment process offers stakeholders the opportunity to compel the Forest Service to remove these watersheds from development status and ensure that their management focus is the production of fish through administrative changes to the Forest Plan. Although that would not offer the permanent protection of congressional action, it would elevate the status of these watersheds and help ensure fish and fish production are a management priority for the Forest Service in these important Tongass watersheds.
Comment for the Tongass Today
Your two cents will help here – on this page you can edit an email to the Tongass FS Supervisor Stewart and encourage the recommended amendments to the TLMP (Tongass Land Management Plan) to preserve the Tongass 77.
