The Tongass National Forest is under threat from loggers once again and as a result the struggling Alaskan wolf could also be in danger of extinction.
Covering most of Southeast Alaska, the Tongass in the biggest National Forest in the USA and is regarded as one of North America's greatest natural treasures, with its salmon spawning rivers, snow-capped mountains, fjords and forested islands, surrounding the famous Inside Passage.
However, the Forest Service is currently preparing its largest auction of the Tongass in a decade to logging companies. In nearly six decades, loggers have cleared more than 700 square miles of the Tongass. Furthermore, the Forest Service has bulldozed more than 4,500 miles of roads through the forest for the logging companies to use.
In response, environmental groups have filed three lawsuits against the Forest Service in an attempt to stop the auction, contending that further logging threatens the struggling Alaskan wolf and defies a federal law requiring the service to protect wildlife on its lands. Prince of Wales Island, where the logging is focused, has seen nearly 94 percent of its biggest stands of virgin forest cut down.
Please sign and share the petition to demand the Forest Service does not auction off critical habitat of the Alaskan Wolf by logging the Tongass Forest.
The Tongass National Forest is one of the world's greatest natural treasures, with its salmon spawning rivers, snow-capped mountains, fjords and forested islands surrounding the famous Inside Passage. The Forest Service must do more to protect this treasure and keep its habitat intact and functioning for all the endangered and threatened species which rely upon it. The Big Thorne auction, on Prince of Wales Island fails this test. With 94% of the old-growth forest already logged, any further destruction of this habitat must be avoided. Please follow through on the Obama Administration's pledge to move away from logging old-growth, and cancel this sale.
