Environmental and Economic Impact Assessment
By Lori Wiley
May 16, 2016
Eco/370

In Chapter 11 a narrow strip of land that is considered rainforest country is discussed. This land is known as the Tongass National Forest. Due to it being so scarce and the cutting of trees for timber, it poses a great threat compared to the tropical rainforests. This forest was once untouched and preserved. Over recent years and decades land has been converted into private land and owned by the state of Alaska.
President Clinton put the Roadless Area Conservation Rule in force to protect nearly one-third of the 192 million acres in the national forest system, nationwide (B.C Field, 2013). The Bush administration promised to uphold the rule when elected. However, the Bush administration lied and withdrew it. This left 9.3 million acres without protection. This puts much of the heart of Alaska's rainforest, once again, back on the chopping block (B.C Field, 2013).
The big ancient tree forest is a big target to the logging companies. These big trees provide much needed shelter to wildlife living within the forest. The timber industry is tearing out the heart of the Tongass Rainforest. The problem with logging is it is somewhat economic. Logging on private and public lands has been heavily subsidized, and industry's plan has been to log the best of the forest first, then the best of what is left.
About half of forest covered with big trees and two-thirds of the biggest-tree stands have been destroyed or killed in large numbers, for many years these facts were hidden from the people of Unites States and the Congress. The United States Forest Service was responsible for hiding these facts from the public and Congress (U S Department of Interior, 2016). The Forest Service with the use of statistical data stated indirectly that all 17 million acres of the Tongass National "Forest" is covered with trees, but in actual two-third area of it was not covered with big trees. The agency also showed rude expression on the size of forest with the use of statistical slight-of-hand to add details that the small covered with big-tree forest with vast area having small trees, claiming in a mistaken manner that the amount per unit size of tree alone, not forest canopy structure, creates good environment where organism lives (B.C Field, 2013). The strong effect of cutting down of trees for timber on the Tongass National Forest has been to a large extent. Greenpeace argues in favor of that, that the corporations cutting down the trees on private lands in the Tongass Rainforest raise their work up to Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards. If FSC certification is obtained, it assures that environmental, social, cultural and economic harm is minimized to a large extent and that the work is extended in duration without interruption. This would be great improvement over current practices.
Another magnitude of private forestlands in the Tongass Rainforest is that they are combined with two lands. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires the Forest Service to consider cumulative environmental strong effects when making decisions and to generate an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and also include all the statement which has been accrued over a long time from more than one project. It should also generate a statement of all those who has not fulfilled ownership rights or had crossed ownership rights. Forest service has to generate all these records and have to make a statement. It means that forest service should keep in consideration about the effects of environment while taking any decision.
Taxpayer dollars secure the assistance of by granting a subsidy to the timber industry in Alaska's rainforest, both on public and private lands. As the Tongass Rainforest is located far away spatially and its land is topographically very uneven this makes it the most expensive place to log in America. Cutting down of trees for timber has cost Americans nearly one billion dollars, and is still losing an average of $35 million per year (B.C Field, 2013).
Corporation logging i.e. cutting their own land in Alaska are allowed to sell their "net operating losses" to other corporations at a discount. It will then reduce the estimated value of those losses on their own taxes. This practice didn’t last for long as it was ended elsewhere in the nation years ago (U S Department of Interior, 2016). Like always, the public use to pay more taxes to cover up their lost revenue when the corporation did not make any effort to pay their deserving share.
Most of the wood is exported to Asia or to the areas of United States which are very near or very closely connected to it. The tax dollars and our precious rainforest are not used to good advantage, like this could have been provided to utilize the wood in the U.S. The economy of Southeast Alaska has not been dependent on timber for years. In a region with a population of 75,000, there are only 650 remaining timber-related jobs in Southeast Alaska, down from a decade ago when the timber industry employed 5,000 (U S Department of Interior, 2016). Commercial fishing is the still called as the largest employer in the region itself. Tourism and Recreation is declared as the second largest employer.
In conclusion, the Tongass forest is now a preserved land and majority of all wildlife can thrive in their ecosystem. The studies have shown that the logging industry has has had no positive impact since Alaska’s economy hasn’t depended on the logging industry for years.

References
B.C Field, M. K. (2013). An introduction . In Environmental Economics (6th ed.). New York, New York: McGraw-Hill.
U S Department of Interior. (2016, 05 11). Retrieved from Bureau of land management: http://www.blm.gov