Tongass Timber Reform Act

The Tongass has been recognized by some as the largest,[3] wettest, and wildest of the United States National Forests,[1] with "soaring mountain peaks, narrow fjords, lush woods, and more than 1000 named islands.

[3] John Muir, the founder of the Sierra Club, and by many seen as the grandfather of the American National Parks, called the Tongass a place of "endless rhythm and beauty.

[1] Continuation of similar rates of deforestation would have led to a large reduction in suitable habitat of the Sitka black-tailed deer, an important resource for subsistence hunting.

[3] Projections for the forest calculated prior to the TTRA, estimated that the timber harvests of the Tongass, and its consequential impacts on future employment, did not yield promising results for the logging industry.

Disruptions were forecasted to local communities and a gross decline in profitable timber if the management approach by the Forest Service was not changed.

Under In section 705 (a) of ANILCA, The Forest Service was legally required to make 4.5 billion board feet of the raw wood available to timber harvesting, on a decadal cycle.

The receipts of the timber sales for that period that the federal government released, total $32,427,432, resulting in an approximate net loss of $353,575,568 for the national treasury.

In 1951 the United States federal government signed a contract with the Ketchikan Pulp Company (KPC) to authorize the harvest of 8.25 billion board feet of timber within a 50-year period from the Tongass National Forest.

The second contract was between the Alaska Pulp Corporation (APC) and the United States, signed in 1956, authorizing the harvest of 4.975 billion board feet for the next fifty years.

The funding by the United States government of the timber industry was intended as a strategy to increase the population of Southeast Alaska by creating more employment opportunities.

[3] The intention of the legislation was aimed at safeguarding clean water and riparian habitats, protecting the old-growth of the Tongass National Forest,[1] and reducing the economic strain on federal funding through the 4.5 billion board feet decadal guaranteed timber budget.

Harvesting in these areas increases soil erosion, threatening the quality of the watershed ecosystems and the potentially harming the fish that reside in these streams.

[5] This section intended to increase small business participation in the Tongass, in order to tackle the monopoly of the KPC and the APC in the timber industry.

The Senate were hesitant to endorse the extensive reforms, concerned for the local economy of Southeast Alaska, and the Alaskans that relied on the timber industry of the Tongass for employment.

[3] An article published in a local newspaper of Juneau, mentioned that the "Law provision cancelled a $40 million annual subsidy for timber harvest" and "significantly reshaped the logging industry's relationship with the Tongass National Forest.

This can lead to a significant reduction in the final buffer zone afforded to the stream, particularly as the Tongass National Forest consists predominantly of steep terrain.