Measure to Reduce Logging in Alaska Sent to President

The House on Friday passed legislation to reduce logging in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, sending President Bush a bill that attempts to balance timber industry and environmental interests.

The measure, approved by voice vote, is the work of a House-Senate conference committee. The Senate gave its final approval to the bill by voice vote Wednesday.

Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), who fought the bill every step of its way through Congress, said it would seriously damage the economy of southeastern Alaska.

“It was not a compromise,” he said. “It was the environmental groups across this nation not understanding what they were doing to the Alaskan people.”

But Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez), chairman of the subcommittee that handled the legislation, said some factions wanted an even bigger part of the forest removed from logging.

“We believe this is a compromise that brings some finality to this issue,” he said.

Environmental groups have criticized logging practices allowed by a 1980 law governing the 17-million-acre Tongass forest.

Although 5.5 million acres were removed from timber harvesting by that law, it also contained a business arrangement with logging companies allowing taxpayer-owned timber to be sold at extremely low prices.

The new legislation requires the Forest Service to prepare only enough timber for sale to meet “market demand.”

It also declares about 1 million acres off-limits to timber harvesting and creates off-limits buffers 100 feet wide along rivers and streams important to fishing.

The Tongass, stretching across the Alaska panhandle, is the country’s largest national forest and home to a rich array of wildlife. It is a major source of timber.