Alaska Environmental Concerns Reach a Crescendo

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

10/22/96

OVERVIEW & SOURCE by EE

Following is a photocopy of a Christian Science Monitor article which details

the growing concern over the environment and forests in Alaska, USA. As the

last major wilderness in the United States, there is not reason that the forests

and biodiversity of Alaska should be foresaken for once over resource extraction

as has happened time after time under the western model of overdevelopment.

g.b.

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Alaska has hit an environmental crescendo

10/20/96

KETCHIKAN, ALASKA -- Say "Alaska" and most people think ice and snow, polar

bears, and a midnight sun. But the panhandle of this vast state, hanging down to

the southeast alongside British Columbia, comprises the largest temperate

rainforest in the world.

This rich and beautiful archipelago, with its thousands of islands and glacier-

etched fjords, its centuries-old trees and abundant wildlife considered

endangered elsewhere, is at the center of a high-stakes political fight over its

future.

Marking the landscape is evidence of the battle: large patches of clearcuts,

some from hilltop to shoreline, totalling nearly 1 million acres.

On one side are loggers, millworkers, and others laboring in the small southeast

Alaska communities cut off from the rest of the world except by boat or plane.

In their corner is the state's congressional delegation - small in number but

powerful in legislative seniority. Backing them are the corporate investors and

lobbyists eager to harvest the millions of acres of giant hemlock and sitka

spruce.

On the other side are environmentalists and their allies - some in the fishing

and tourism industries, wildlife biologists and other natural scientists, and

traditional native Americans whose ancestors have been here nearly 10,000 years.

"It's much more than timber," says Gilbert Fred, president of the Tlingit and

Hiada Community Council in the native village of Angoon, located on Admiralty

Island. "We're fighting for our people's right to live."

An hour or so away by float plane in Ketchikan, where the dominant industry is a

sawmill and pulp plant, retired forester Dick Coose says much the same thing:

"It's an issue of livelihood around here."

The controversy centers on the Tongass National Forest, which sprawls over most

of the area. At nearly 17 million acres, it's bigger than West Virginia and

three times larger than the next-largest national forest. In a way, it's the

story of the western national forests writ large.

But there are differences - no officially endangered spotted owl-type species to

tie things up in court, and a significant number of government agency employees

here are willing to speak out against national forest policy. And there is a

paradox: Many of the biggest clearcuts that mark the Tongass (named for a clan

of Tlingit Indians) have been done by native Americans, typically thought of as

being more protective of the land than the more recent arrivals here of European

descent.

Why should anybody outside of southeast Alaska care about the Tongass National

Forest? For three reasons.

First, the millions of trees that stand on federal land belong to all Americans.

Many of those trees are being cut for export. And if, as the General Accounting

Office reported, the federal government is losing millions a year on the deal in

administrative and road-building costs, that presumably would be a concern to

all taxpayers.

Second, nobody - whether they call themselves an environmentalist or not - wants

to see repeated the decline of wildlife species that has marked the legislative

"gridlock" and "train wrecks" (choose your image) down in Oregon, Washington,

and northern California.

And third, Americans by the hundreds of thousands - the number has doubled over

the past 10 years - are coming here as tourists to learn about and appreciate

the natural beauty that some now find marred by industrial logging. "It's

impacting our business because people don't want to come up here and see

clearcuts," says Sue Warner, who runs an expedition company based in Juneau, the

state capital.

The Tongass National Forest is a veritable Noah's ark of wildlife - home to

several hundred species of mammals, birds, fish, and shellfish. Black bears,

grizzlies, wolves, wolverines, moose, mountain goats, mink, river otters, bald

eagles, goshawks, and five species of salmon.

A walk through the cathedral-like forests at Port Houghton or Red Bluff presents

a seemingly endless variety of trees, shrubs, berries, grasses, and mosses.

Fresh evidence of bear - paw prints, claw marks on trees, roots dug up - is

common, and bear are frequently seen snatching salmon headed upstream to spawn.

Groups hiking here carry shotguns and pepper spray just in case.

Aside from some small-scale logging, mining, and fishing, there was little

industrial activity here up through World War II. To encourage wood-fiber

production and increased population (both seen as important goals in the early

cold-war period), the federal government sought to promote development in what

was still a territory by offering long-term contracts to log the national

forest.

The results were 50-year agreements providing more than 13.5 billion board-feet

of timber to two large corporations, which built what were then state-of-the-art

pulp mills in Sitka and Ketchikan. One of those companies (the Japanese-owned

Alaska Pulp Corporation) closed its doors in Sitka in 1993, claiming that Uncle

Sam had failed to provide sufficient timber for the mill to stay in business.

It's now suing the government for $1.2 billion.

Now the focus is on the Ketchikan Pulp Company, a subsidiary of Louisiana-

Pacific Corporation, one of the largest US forest-products companies. KPC

produces "dissolving pulp" used in materials from rayon and cellophane to

pharmaceuticals and food thickeners. Some 95 percent of its product is sold

abroad (77 percent to Asia).

Critics say the company (with acquiescence if not encouragement from the Forest

Service) has caused environmental damage by over-cutting the woods and polluting

at its pulp mill. They're particularly critical of KPC's contract, which lasts

through 2004.

"It's an exclusive, one-of-its-kind monopoly," says Bart Koehler, executive

director of the Juneau-based Southeast Alaska Conservation Council.

The company - and most of the business establishment in Ketchikan - insist that

KPC is a good corporate citizen providing the backbone of their economy. If

problems cropped up in the past, supporters say, these were largely the result

of a new environmental ethic. Company officials insist the only way to adjust to

this new ethic is for Congress to extend the contract another 15 years so KPC

can invest $200 million to modernize its mill.

Without such a contract extension, warns KPC president Ralph Lewis, "The

viability of our mill is threatened along with the economy of our entire

region."

Alaska's congressional delegation - Sen. Ted Stevens, Sen. Frank Murkowski, and

Rep. Don Young (all Republicans) - are pushing legislation that would extend the

contract. Mr. Young also has filed a bill that would turn the Tongass National

Forest over to Alaska.

KPC worked closely with lawmakers drafting the bill. "We didn't actually write

it, but we certainly had input," says KPC spokesman Troy Reinhart.

The clear warning here is that Louisiana-Pacific, which has had other business

problems, could shut down the KPC mill. Regional officials say that would be bad

news for the local economy.

"The effects of a timber decline on our members would be devastating," says

Ernesta Ballard, president of the Ketchikan Chamber of Commerce and an

environmental consultant (to KPC and others) and former regional director for

the Environmental Protection Agency.

Mill supporters say KPC provides 25 percent of the area's payroll in direct and

related jobs, putting $5 million a month into the local economy. Mill wages

average $45,000 per year and last year-round.

Other economic analysts assert that timber plays a relatively smaller - and

declining - part of the region's economy.

In a recent report, ECONorthwest, a research firm in Eugene, Ore., that has done

work for environmental groups, noted that "in 1995, those directly employed in

the timber industry accounted for less than 6 percent of the region's total

employment, and many of those were nonresidents."

"Fishing, tourism, and the quality of the natural environment contribute to the

regional economy's diversity and strength," states this report. "Clearly,

southeast Alaska's economy is diverse and strong enough to absorb reductions in

timber harvest yet keep growing."

Still, even the most adamant environmentalists acknowledge there would have to

be considerable adjustment if KPC pulls out. "I'm not going to minimize the

situation," says Mr. Koehler of the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council. "If

that pulp mill closes, there's going to be a lot of pain and suffering."

KPC cleans up its act

While the company promises a more environmentally friendly future, its past is

spotted. Following an EPA investigation that began during the Bush

administration, KPC last year pleaded guilty to one felony and 13 misdemeanor

violations of the Clean Water Act for illegally discharging pollutants into Ward

Cove. The company was fined $6.1 million and placed on five years' probation.

"It is true we have had problems in the past and for those we apologize,"

company president Ralph Lewis told a Senate hearing in July. But "KPC has new

management, and we are excited about the future and are ready to move forward."

In any case, turning wood chips into pulp remains an inherently messy and

potentially poisonous business. Under the federal Toxic Chemical Release

Inventory program, KPC must regularly report on its use of (and any pollution

which results from) nine chemicals: nitric acid, phosphoric acid, chlorine,

chloroform, hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, ammonia, methanol, and formic acid

- all processed, manufactured, or used in the production of pulp.

Company officials claim great strides in improving the mill's operation, and

have set as a goal becoming "totally chlorine-free" by the end of 1998. This

would remove the danger of dioxin, a toxic carcinogen associated with

pulpmaking.

"I've seen a lot of progress with them," says Ms. Ballard, the former EPA

official now helping KPC design a new system for treating its wastewater.

Harangue over harvest

But it's away from the mill and out in the vast forests of the Tongass where

most of the debate focuses.

Under the 50-year contract, KPC is supposed to be able to buy 192.5 million

board-feet of timber each year from the Forest Service. (A board-foot measures

12 inches by 12 inches by 1 inch.)

The Forest Service normally designs 10- to 15-year management plans for each

national forest. Because of environmental concerns, as reflected in reform

legislation passed by Congress in 1990, the Forest Service amended the plan then

in effect. The result was more restrictions on logging - what KPC complains were

"unilateral modifications" - resulting in a reduced timber harvest of about 159

million board-feet a year. This led to lost jobs and periodic shutdowns of the

company's operations. The company is suing in the US Court of Claims over that

issue, and so far has won a settlement of $6 million.

Environmentalists and some inside the Forest Service, on the other hand, charge

that the agency has been too compliant in allowing unsustainable logging that

has threatened wildlife habitat.

"Substantial damage is being done to wildlife and fisheries," says K. J.

Metcalf, who retired after working 26 years in the Forest Service. "We need to

move away from industrial clear-cutting to a more sustainable forestry."

Although some biologists warn that local populations of wolves and goshawks are

in decline, no species so far has been officially listed as endangered. But as

Bradley Powell, Ketchikan area supervisor for Tongass, points out, "The issue is

not numbers but distribution and (habitat) fragmentation."

In other words, some species need wide territories over which to range. When

clearcuts and logging roads start to spread, this has an adverse impact on such

species. Matthew Kirchoff, biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and

Game, notes that 50 years ago there were just 15 miles of road on Prince of

Wales Island. Today, there are 3,500.

Unlike the lower 48 states, where much logging is selective, tree-cutting on the

Tongass is virtually all in clearcuts. Proponents say the heavy rainfall (more

than 200 inches per year in some areas) and rich soil mean quick forest

regeneration.

"You have to beat back the trees," quips KPC spokesman Troy Reinhart.

New trees may come back quickly, others say, but after a few years this even-age

forest forms such a thick canopy that other plants, which provide food for

smaller mammals, disappear. This can disrupt the natural relationship between

predator and prey found in old-growth forests.

"Basically, when you go into a 100-year rotation, you never get old-growth,"

says Mr. Kirchhoff. "The whole dynamic between wolves and deer is changing

because of the changing landscape."

Forest management feud

The Forest Service recently issued its new draft management plan for the

Tongass. The plan includes more wildlife habitat reserves, wider buffers along

beaches and estuaries, and leaving some trees standing in clearcuts to improve

habitat in second-growth forests. Agency officials assert that their plan will

meet the obligation to provide sufficient timber under the 50-year contract.

But the Forest Service also opposes the legislation mill officials say they need

to stay in business here. "It's more than an extension," says Mr. Powell. "It

also changes quite a few features."

The Forest Service expected and received a large amount of feedback to its

proposal. Hundreds of people showed up at hearings in small communities.

Thousands have sent in written comments.

Many industry backers say the Forest Service is overly optimistic in predicting

how much timber can be produced from the acreage targeted for harvesting under

the plan. "They figured they could get more volume out of fewer trees," says

Dick Coose, who retired after 32 years with the Forest Service and now heads a

grass-roots group supportive of the industry.

But as is usually the case, the Forest Service finds itself with critics on the

other side as well.

As part of the planning process, a "peer review committee" of university and

other scientists was asked to go over habitat-conservation measures the Forest

Service was considering for the Tongass.

In a recent statement, several of these scientists warned that "logging and

related activities ... pose a significant risk to the viability of populations

of several species associated with old-growth forests." This group recommends

moving away from clearcutting, and it warns that local populations of goshawk

and wolf (both considered important indicators of forest health) could be in

danger of extinction if forestry methods are not changed to mimic nature.

Earlier this month, a group of scientists and resource managers from state and

federal land-management agencies took an even harder line.

Critics from within

The Association of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics is a

national organization begun about six years ago. Some of these workers have

become public whistle-blowers, but most remain anonymous for fear of

retribution.

In its detailed analysis of the Forest Service proposal for the Tongass, AFSEEE

recommends canceling Ketchikan Pulp Company's 50-year contract, establishing

large biological reserves here, setting up strong watershed buffers to protect

fisheries, harvesting selectively rather than clearcutting, and giving harvested

forests 200 to 300 years to grow back.

"Today, competing uses on forestlands preclude the dominance of one industry

over all other uses," states the AFSEEE report. "The Tongass will never return

to the era of large-scale industrial logging.... We must now ask how we can

manage for biological diversity and other sustainable uses and still provide

commodities."

"My feeling is that the cautionary approach is best," says Jackie Canterbury, a

Forest Service biologist for six years before resigning to become AFSEEE's

Alaska coordinator based in Ketchikan.

Speaking out against her former employer has not been easy, especially living in

a town so long dependent on timber and so stirred up over its future. There have

been ominous phone calls and a bullet through her front window. "I would be

crazy to say I'm not scared," she says.

With national elections this year, the time for any KPC contract extension is

running short. Company officials say they're making contingency plans for

layoffs. In recent days, representatives of KPC, the Alaska congressional

delegation, Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles's office, and the Clinton administration

have been huddled in Washington weighing jobs and environmental protection on

the Tongass.

"The basic issue is still how to manage those resources for the long term," says

Bradley Powell of the Forest Service. "It's all about finding the appropriate

balance."

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