Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, this is a simple amendment. The Clinton era Roadless Rule applies a one-size-fits-all approach to areas where those policies rarely work, especially the federally locked lands in Alaska. At 16.8 million acres, the Tongass National Forest is the largest of the National Forest System. Coupled with the Chugach National Forest, Alaska contains 12 percent of the total acres of national forest lands in the total United States. The Roadless Rule is nothing more than another effort to end the multiple-use mandate of Federal forest lands, something that is required by law but often ignored by nameless, faceless, unelected bureaucrats. Although the Tongass is over 100 years old, only 400,000 acres have been harvested. Of the remaining acreage, much of the forest is not topographically suitable for timber harvest, and 6.6 million acres are congressionally designated as wilderness areas, national monuments, and roadless areas. Not only does the Roadless Rule violate the authorities granted under the Alaska National Lands Act, it was adopted without proper consultation or consideration of the countless communities that rely on responsible resource development. Nearly 96 percent of the Tongass National Forest and 99 percent of the Chugach National Forest are protected by ANILCA and forest management plans. Exempting Alaska from the Roadless Rule would help make certain that what is left of the timber industry in the southeast can survive.…”