The Biden administration is moving toward restoring environmental protections for Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, one of the world’s largest temperate rain forests.
Former President Donald Trump opened about 9 million acres of the nearly 17-million acre forest to logging and construction.
It’s not clear how much of the 9 million acres would be protected. A White House agenda of forthcoming regulatory actions published Friday said the administration intends to “repeal or replace” Trump’s actions.
The Biden administration would issue its proposed revisions by August, with environmental analyses and a final decision expected in the coming years.
The Tongass is one of the world’s largest carbon sinks, and was protected by a Clinton-era policy known as the roadless rule, which banned logging and construction in much of the country’s national forests.
The Biden administration also has moved to review other Trump-era policies.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland has submitted her recommendations to the president on whether to restore Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante to their full size. No details of the report have been released.
Trump cut Bears Ears by 85% and Grand-Staircase Escalante by nearly half.
And the government suspended almost a dozen gas and oil leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which Trump allowed in his final days in office.
Featured photo courtesy of US Forest Service.
