January, 25 2023, 04:56pm EDT

U.S. Forest Service restores critical protections to Tongass National Forest
The National Roadless Rule was rolled back for America’s last great rainforest by the Trump administration, threatening millions of acres of undeveloped national forest lands
JUNEAU (Áakʼw Ḵwáan Territory)
In a win for Southeast Alaska communities, wildlife, and the climate, the U.S. Forest Service reinstated Roadless Rule protections across the Tongass rainforest in Southeast Alaska. Tribal leaders, recreational small-business owners, commercial fishing operators, and conservationists cheered the agency’s restoration of this critical safeguard. The move restores federal protection — from industrial logging and damaging road-building — to just over 9 million undeveloped acres in America’s largest national forest.
The 17 million-acre Tongass National Forest, situated in the southeast corner of Alaska, is a temperate rainforest that draws visitors from around the globe and provides habitat for an abundance of wildlife including grizzly bears, bald eagles, and wolves. It is the ancestral homeland of the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian peoples. The Tongass also serves as the country’s largest forest carbon sink, making its protection critical for U.S. efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions and to set a global example.
The following statements were issued in response to today’s news.
President Joel Jackson, Organized Village of Kake:
“The Tongass Roadless Rule is important to everyone. The old-growth timber is a carbon sink, one of the best in the world. It’s important to OUR WAY OF LIFE — the streams, salmon, deer, and all the forest animals and plants.”
Naawéiyaa Tagaban, Environmental Justice Strategy Lead, Native Movement:
“The restoration of National Roadless Rule protections for the Tongass National Forest is a great first step in honoring the voices of the many Tribal Governments and Tribal Citizens who spoke out in favor of Roadless Rule protections for the Tongass. We are grateful to the Biden administration for taking this first step toward long-term protections for the Tongass. We hope that going forward true long-term protections will be established that do not rely on a rule which can be changed at the whim of a presidential administration. The administration must look to Tribal Sovereignty and Indigenous stewardship as the true long-term solution for protections in the Tongass. Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian people have lived in and managed the Tongass national forest for generations, true protections will look like the restoration of lands into Indigenous ownership.”
Wanda Culp, Tongass Coordinator, Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network:
“The Tongass Forest is homeland to countless indigenous family species, intertwined as strong and delicate as a spider's circular web. The Tongass National Forest in Alaska is a national treasure, stored wealth, as is each of America's Public Forests. They should always be handled as the treasures they are — cherished and saved to enable our future generations to breathe fresh air. To BREATHE FREELY!”
Linda Behnken, commercial fisherman and Executive Director, Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association:
“We are thrilled and relieved to know the Tongass' remaining unroaded areas will remain intact vibrant forests for generations to come. Our fisheries depend on healthy habitat, and with climate change driving ocean warming, protecting habitat is increasingly important to the fish, the fisheries, and the coastal fishing communities. This is welcome news!”
Captain Dan Blanchard, owner and CEO, Uncruise Adventures:
“As an Alaska small business owner, I am ecstatic that the Forest Service is fully reinstating the Roadless Rule in the Tongass National Forest. It is time for us to focus on recreational opportunities for locals and visitors alike. The visitor industry is huge to the SE Alaska economy. Visitors travel from every corner of the planet to explore the rare environment and wildlife that is the Tongass National Forest. Happy Day!”
Mike and Sally Trotter, owners, Baranof Wilderness Lodge:
"GO JOE! Thank you so much for your support, stewardship, and care for this precious and wonderful planet earth! We honor your path.”
Above & Beyond Alaska:
“As a company that has been operating wilderness trips in the Tongass National Forest for over 20 years, we are overjoyed that the Roadless Rule will be restored to help protect this national treasure and to ensure healthy ecosystems continue to thrive in Southeast Alaska.”
Kevin Murphy, owner, Murphy's Maritime Services:
“As a business owner in Southeast Alaska, reinstating the Roadless Rule allows me to continue to take visitors from around the world to experience an intact ecosystem filled with salmon, wildlife, and old-growth forests — not clearcuts. It’s no wonder Juneau gets more than a million visitors a year.”
Teague Whalen, owner and operator, Tongass Teague:
“There are two uncompromising realities for the survival of life on this planet: clean air and clean water. My hiking tours into the Tongass begin at the literal end of our road, where the Roadless Rule reinstatement will ensure that the Tongass can continue to be a lasting carbon sink.”
Stephen Van Derhoff, owner, Spirit Walker Expeditions:
“We are elated — literally floating on the news that the Roadless Rule is being reinstated in the Tongass. As we kayak, hike, and camp our way through this incredible ecosystem, we're thankful for its protection and stewardship — and grateful for the opportunity to share the wilds of Southeast Alaska with guests from around the globe.”
Andy Moderow, Alaska Director, Alaska Wilderness League:
“We applaud today’s announcement, because it recognizes that Southeast Alaska’s future is rooted in sustainable uses of the forest. The Roadless Rule protects Tongass old-growth while also providing flexibility for community access, hydropower projects, utility connectors and other economic development projects when they serve a legitimate public interest. This decision puts public lands and people first, and we are grateful for the action.”
Patrick Lavin, Alaska policy advisor, Defenders of Wildlife:
“Protecting the Tongass National Forest is an important step in recognizing the role of our forests in fighting the biodiversity and climate crises. Today’s action helps restore responsible stewardship in the Tongass, as demanded by an overwhelming majority of people during the public process. We look forward to working with the Biden administration to similarly protect older forests and wildlands across the nation.”
Kate Glover, Senior Attorney, Earthjustice:
“We applaud the Forest Service for making good on its commitment to tribes and to the climate by restoring the Roadless Rule across the Tongass. This is great news for the forest, the salmon, the wildlife, and the people who depend on intact ecosystems to support their ways of life and livelihoods.”
Ellen Montgomery, Research and Policy Center Public Lands Campaign Director, Environment America:
“After eagerly awaiting this announcement, we’re overjoyed that full roadless protections have been restored to the Tongass National Forest. Our largest national forest provides critical habitat for countless birds, salmon and its ancient trees absorb staggering amounts of carbon. The roadless area, 9.2 million acres, has been protected from logging since 2001. Thanks to the Biden administration, this critical forestland will have continued protection for decades longer. Now that this Trump era rollback has been restored, it’s time for the Biden administration to move to increase protection from logging for all old and mature forests across the entire country.”
Hallie Templeton, Legal Director, Friends of the Earth:
“We are proud to stand in victory alongside our Alaskan neighbors and other partners. Today marks yet another reversal of Trump-era attempts to gut conservation policies in the name of profits. Our message is loud and clear: we won’t allow such lawless behavior. We will keep watching and fighting in the name of conservation and environmental justice.”
Garett Rose, Staff Attorney, Alaska Project, NRDC:
“The Forest Service deserves a lot of praise for today’s move. The region’s Native peoples depend on this vast wildland, and the public overwhelmingly wants it protected. The Tongass is a refuge for animals that are endangered in other places, not to mention five species of salmon. We need to keep old-growth forests like these intact all around the globe—and soon—to sharply reduce carbon emissions. A key next step for the Biden administration would be protecting mature forests across all federal lands here in the U.S.”
Alex Craven, Senior Campaign Representative, Sierra Club:
“The Tongass is often referred to as ‘our nation’s climate forest’ for its ability to store carbon and protect us from the worst impacts of climate change. Thanks to today’s reinstatement of the Roadless Rule in Alaska, millions of acres of this valuable ecosystem will once again be protected – as will its supply of clean water, critical wildlife habitat, and carbon stores. We are proud to stand with Indigenous leaders and local Alaskans who have been championing the effort to restore these critical protections.”
Meredith Trainor, Executive Director, Southeast Alaska Conservation Council:
All of us at the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council and across Southeast Alaska are celebrating today’s announcement. This long-awaited decision by the Biden administration will protect over 9 million acres of Tongass National Forest Land for years to come. Hundreds of thousands of Alaskans and Americans wrote, lobbied, rallied, and petitioned for the National Roadless Rule to stay in place on the Tongass, and thanks to the Biden administration and leadership from Southeast Alaska’s Tribal communities, we have finally succeeded. Today’s win is the work of hundreds and thousands of hands and voices, all lifted up to protect this most precious place that we love - the Tongass National Forest.
Dominick A. DellaSala, Ph. D. Chief Scientist, Wild Heritage:
"The Tongass' towering old-growth rainforests are tops among all national forests, and its roadless areas are 16% of the nation's total. Even more impressive is this single national forest, the nation's largest, stores the equivalent of 20% of all the carbon in the entire national forest system, making it North America's best nature-based climate solution. What a glorious decision for Alaskans and all those that care about a safe climate and our natural legacy."
Meda DeWitt, Senior Specialist, Alaska, The Wilderness Society:
“This is a long-awaited victory for the Tongass and for the Tlingit people. Through the leadership of the Indigenous peoples of Southeast Alaska, we have made our voices heard and will see over nine million acres of ancestral homeland and invaluable old-growth forest protected from harmful development. While we are grateful to the Biden Administration for taking decisive action in reinstating the 2001 Roadless Rule, we must continue to listen to the voices of Southeast Alaska and ensure that this forest is protected for the preservation of culture and future generations to come.”
Osprey Orielle Lake, Executive Director, Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN):
"After years of collective advocacy, we are celebrating this decision to protect the Tongass Rainforest and our global climate. Old-growth and mature forests are vital to climate mitigation, and we must take action to support protection of all old-growth forests like the Tongass, while we particularly listen to the leadership of Indigenous peoples when their forest homelands and territories are under attack. We look forward to the Tongass remaining protected for current and future generations, and to uplifting Indigenous leadership."
Ted Zukoski, senior attorney, Center for Biological Diversity:
“What a fantastic day for the old trees of the Tongass, Southeast Alaska communities, wildlife and our climate. We're in the midst of climate and wildlife extinction crises and the Tongass is a lifeline for our planet. The wild, mature and old-growth forests on the Tongass are carbon-storing champions that are worth more standing. It’s crucial that the Biden administration is stepping up to protect them from logging.”
Background
In October 2020, the Trump administration canceled application of the nationwide Roadless Rule to the 9 million acres of Southeast Alaska’s 17-million-acre Tongass National Forest it previously protected. The public submitted nearly half a million comments during the federally required public process The Forest Service analyzed a subset of the comments, finding 96% supporting keeping the Roadless Rule in force on the Tongass, and only 1% supporting the exemption ultimately selected by the Trump administration.
Originally adopted in 2001, the Roadless Rule is one of the most significant conservation measures adopted to protect the national forests of the United States. Applicable nationwide, it prohibits industrial logging and most road-building in intact areas of the national forest system, with a few exceptions. Alaska's Tongass National Forest was protected under the national rule in 2001, but was exempted first under the Bush administration and later under the Trump Administration. Today's decision puts the Roadless Rule back in place across the Tongass, protecting its nine million acres of roadless areas from logging and road-building.
On June 11, 2021, the Biden administration announced it would “repeal or replace” the so-called Alaska-specific Roadless Rule.
Earthjustice is a non-profit public interest law firm dedicated to protecting the magnificent places, natural resources, and wildlife of this earth, and to defending the right of all people to a healthy environment. We bring about far-reaching change by enforcing and strengthening environmental laws on behalf of hundreds of organizations, coalitions and communities.
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In First 100 Days, Trump Waged 'Relentless Assault on Working People'
"We are either patriots fighting the regime, or we are complicit in its tyranny," wrote former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich. "There is no middle ground."
Apr 29, 2025
Tuesday is the 100th day of U.S. President Donald Trump's second term, which so far has featured plummeting public opinion poll numbers and mobilizations against his billionaire inner circle's mounting attacks on working people.
"Since Franklin D. Roosevelt's earthshaking first 100 days in office, no president has matched the sheer drama and disruption of that 15-week sprint in 1933, which rewrote the relationship between Americans and their government. At least until now," Naftali Bendavid wrote Monday for The Washington Post.
"Roosevelt's onslaught, in the depths of the Great Depression, was aimed at expanding the federal government's presence in Americans' lives. Trump's crusade is aimed largely at dismantling it," Bendavid added, noting that while FDR's agenda was enacted by Congress, the current president "has governed largely by unilateral executive action."
Ahead of nationwide protests planned for later this week, many Trump critics marked the 100-day milestone by chronicling how the president's policies are making life harder for the working class, from cutting federal employees and funding to pursuing mass deportations and economically devastating tariffs.
"The cruelty is unnerving, the disregard for the Constitution and rule of law is reckless, and the day-to-day pain can never be justified."
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The Conference Board said Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index dropped 7.9 points this month to 86—meaning "consumer confidence declined for a fifth consecutive month in April, falling to levels not seen since the onset of the Covid pandemic," according to Stephanie Guichard, a senior economist at the think tank.
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"This is a man-made crisis," Owens declared. "In his first 100 days, Trump did all he could to engineer a recession."
Donald Trump promised to end inflation and lower costs on his first day in office. Instead, Americans are paying a higher price on groceries, cars, utilities, and housing — with the looming fear of a recession. He's crashing our economy and leaving you with the bill.
— Governor JB Pritzker (@govpritzker.illinois.gov) April 29, 2025 at 2:31 PM
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“'100 Days of Destruction': Top Historian on Trump's Presidency So Far” Writing for Zeteo, Princeton's @zelizer.bsky.social explains how past US presidents used their first 100 days to build, while Trump has used his to dismantle, intimidate, and destroy. Read/share/subscribe:
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— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan.bsky.social) April 29, 2025 at 7:53 AM
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Tanya Greene, U.S. program director at HRW, said that the administration has already "inflicted enormous damage to human rights" and "we are deeply concerned that these attacks on fundamental freedoms will continue unabated."
Item 51 on HRW's list warns that "people in the United States risk seeing their democratic power weakened by a politically motivated effort to skew long-standing U.S. Census Bureau policies and methods aimed at ensuring accurate population counts that determine how presidents, members of Congress, and others are elected and how federal funding is allocated to states and localities."
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Over the first 100 days, we @sddfund.bsky.social have taken 100 actions challenging the Trump admin’s lawlessness—incl. repping conservatives opposing his foreign abductions We’ll keep fighting in the courts of law & public opinion. I discussed @msnbc.com
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— Norm Eisen (@normeisen.bsky.social) April 29, 2025 at 11:57 AM
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In a Monday blog post, former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich argued that everyone must fight to save a nation that "is tottering on the edge of dictatorship."
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On Thursday, one of more than 1,100 May Day rallies will be held at Philadelphia City Hall, where Sanders (I-Vt.) will join the city's AFL-CIO chapter under the banner, "For the Workers, Not the Billionaires."
Announcing that Sanders will speak at the rally at 4:00 pm Thursday, the union said on Facebook that "Bernie knows that when the working class—labor, immigrants, community members—stand together, we are force that can defeat any bad boss... When workers fight, workers win!"
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The events are taking place more than two months into Sanders' Fighting Oligarchy tour, during which he and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) have drawn crowds of thousands in Republican districts in Nebraska, Iowa, Idaho, and other states—addressing a total of 250,000 people, about a third of whom are not registered Democrats, according to Sanders' office.
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Like the Fighting Oligarchy tour, the May Day 2025 rallies aim to "unite working people across race, immigration status, and geography," according to organizers, with attendees demanding:
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- Strong union protections, fair wages, and dignity for all workers.
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"The only beneficiaries of disrupting or killing this report are the fossil fuel industry and those intent on boosting oil and gas profits," said one person who was working on the 6th National Climate Assessment.
Apr 29, 2025
Hundreds of scientists and experts working on the National Climate Assessment were dismissed by the Trump administration via email on Monday, casting doubt on the future of the federal government's flagship climate report, which was slated to come out by 2028.
On Monday, those working on the 6th version of the report received an email from the Trump administration that the scope of the assessment is being "reevaluated in accordance with the Global Change Research Act of 1990"—in reference to the legislation that mandated the creation of the National Climate Assessment.
"We are now releasing all current assessment participants from their roles," continued the email, the text of which was included in a Monday statement from the group the Union of Concerned Scientists.
"Today, the Trump administration senselessly took a hatchet to a crucial and comprehensive U.S. climate science report by dismissing its authors without cause or a plan," said Dr. Rachel Cleetus, a senior policy director at the Union of Concerned Scientists and an author for the 6th National Climate Assessment (NCA) on the coasts chapter, said on Monday. "People around the nation rely on the NCA to understand how climate change is impacting their daily lives already and what to expect in the future. While not policy prescriptive, the findings of previous reports underscore the importance of cutting heat-trapping emissions and investing in climate resilience to protect communities and the economy."
"The only beneficiaries of disrupting or killing this report are the fossil fuel industry and those intent on boosting oil and gas profits at the expense of people's health and the nation's economic well-being," added Cleetus.
Since entering office, Trump has signed executive orders aimed at bolstering oil, gas, and coal and installed Cabinet members with ties to the fossil fuel industry.
The assessment, which is required by Congress, has been released every few years since 2000 and gives a rundown of how global warming is impacting different sectors of the economy, ecosystems, and communities. The energy and environment focused outlet E&E Newsreported Tuesday that the report is "seen by experts as the definitive body of research about how global warming is transforming the country."
The report last came out in 2023. That National Climate Assessment established that the "effects of human-caused climate change are already far-reaching and worsening across every region" of the United States. The report's authors warned that absent deeper cuts in fossil fuel emissions and accelerated adaption efforts compared to what's currently underway, "severe climate risks to the United States will continue to grow."
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