Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Federal fisheries officials raise concern over Kensington Mine expansion

July 27, 2021 — Coeur Alaska reported its Kensington Mine produced around 125,000 ounces of gold in 2020. And its most recent report suggests it’s on track for a similar yield this year. At current prices that’s around $225 million worth each year.

“Gold prices have been excellent,” said Coeur Alaska’s General Manager Mark Kiessling in Juneau in a recent interview. “They came up quite a bit in 2019 and 2020. They’ve come down a little bit and 2021. But it’s still been very promising.”

The mine is on a patchwork of leased private land and Tongass National Forest in an area between Juneau and Haines east of Lynn Canal.

It’s one of the region’s largest private sector employers with around 360 employees.

But in order to stay open through 2033, the mine needs to expand its footprint.

“We’re looking forward to continuing to to be partners in the community and continue to provide employment for Southeast Alaska for the for the near future,” Kiessling said.

Read the full story at KCAW

Biden administration proposes sweeping protections for Alaska’s Tongass National Forest

July 16, 2021 — The Biden administration announced sweeping protections for Alaska’s Tongass National Forest on Thursday, including an end to large-scale old-growth logging and a proposal to bar road development on more than 9 million acres.

The changes mark a major shift for a region that has relied on felling massive trees for more than a century, reversing one of former president Donald Trump’s biggest public land decisions and halting a significant source of future carbon emissions. The Tongass, part of one of the world’s last relatively intact temperate rainforests, is the only national forest where old-growth logging still takes place on an industrial scale.

The 16.7 million-acre forest — which once boasted major pulp mills but is now targeted for its fine-grain, centuries-old trees that are coveted for pricey musical instruments, expansive outdoor decks and elegant shingles — has been a political flash point for two decades. While Democrats have sought to scale back logging in the forest over time, the administration’s moves go further than any previous president’s efforts.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Tongass twisted: Alaska salmon habitat loses clearcutting protections

October 30, 2020 — As expected, the Trump administration has removed a 2001 Roadless Rule exemption for more than 9 million acres of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest.

A notice posted in the Federal Register on Wednesday, Oct. 28, confirms the plans indicated in the final environmental impact statement, released in September, to open lands to the removal of old-growth trees and the construction of logging roads after nearly 20 years of protection.

“I’m disappointed,” said Seth Stewart of Yakobi Fisheries in Pelican, Alaska. “Exempting the Tongass National Forest and opening 9.3 million acres to old growth logging is a shot in the gut to fishing and tourism businesses in Southeast Alaska that have been driving the economy in Southeast Alaska for decades.”

The Tongass produces more salmon than all other national forests combined, according to Trout Unlimited, and the fishing and tourism industry supported by the intact forest account for more than 25 percent of local jobs in the region.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

US Forest Service may open salmon shelter to clearcutting

September 30, 2020 — A final environmental impact statement released Friday, 25 September, indicates the Forest Service plans to remove Roadless Rule protections from Alaska’s Tongass National Forest.

If finalized, the rule change would repeal conservation measures for more than nine million acres of the forest, making protected lands available for expanded industrial clear-cut logging of old growth trees and construction of expensive and highly subsidized logging roads.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

ALASKA: Forest Service may open salmon shelter to clearcutting

September 28, 2020 — A final environmental impact statement released Friday, Sept. 25, indicates the Forest Service plans to remove Roadless Rule protections from Alaska’s Tongass National Forest.

If finalized, the rule change would repeal conservation measures for more than 9 million acres of the forest, making protected lands available for expanded industrial clear-cut logging of old growth trees and construction of expensive and highly subsidized logging roads.

The Tongass produces more salmon than all other national forests combined. As the largest national forest in the country at nearly 27,000 square miles, it covers most of Southeast Alaska. The intact forest supports robust fishery and tourism sectors that account for more than 26 percent of jobs in the region.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Alaska’s national forests contribute 48 million salmon a year to state’s fishing industry

February 10, 2020 — Alaska’s Tongass and Chugach National Forests, which contain some of the world’s largest remaining tracts of intact temperate rainforest, contribute an average of 48 million salmon a year to the state’s commercial fishing industry, a new USDA Forest Service-led study has found. The average value of these “forest fish” when they are brought back to the dock is estimated at $88 million per year.

Led by the Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station, the study used Alaska Department of Fish and Game data and  estimates from 2007 to 2016 to quantify the number and value of Pacific salmon originating from streams, rivers, and lakes on the Tongass and Chugach, which are, respectively, the largest and second-largest national forests in the country. The study focused on five commercially important salmon species—Chinook, coho, sockeye, pink, and chum—caught primarily in four commercial salmon management areas adjacent to these two forests.

“Pacific salmon fisheries are absolutely central to Alaska’s economy and culture,” said Adelaide Johnson, a Juneau-based hydrologist with the Pacific Northwest Research Station and the study lead. “We suspected that many of the ocean-caught Pacific salmon that support the  likely began their lives in forest streams that drain the Tongass and Chugach National Forests.”

Read the full story at PHYS.org

ALASKA: Forest Service proposes logging in salmon habitat

October 18, 2019 — More than 9 million acres of Southeast Alaska’s 16.7 million-acre Tongass National Forest could lose clearcutting protections with a proposed repeal of the 2001 Roadless Rule.

The U.S. Forest Service will publish its draft environmental impact statement in the Federal Register this week with a preferred alternative to remove all protections for the roadless acres. A 60-day comment period will follow publication.

The statement provides analysis of six alternatives related to the management of the Tongass.

The alternatives range from no action to the removal of the Tongass from the 2001 Roadless Rule (details below). The Department of Agriculture has identified Alternative 6, which is a full exemption, as its preferred alternative. A final decision is expected in 2020.

“As an Alaska salmon troller, I am increasingly dependent on coho salmon reared in the watersheds of Southeast Alaska. Coho live at least a year in fresh water and need the habitat provided by old growth forests,” said 2007 NF Highliner Eric Jordan of Sitka, Alaska. “Meanwhile, the forest service still has a huge list of salmon habitat restoration projects needing funding from the previous era of Industrial clear cut logging in Southeast Alaska. “

Read the full story at National Fisherman