Biden ends Trump plan to log giant Alaska rainforest dubbed the lungs of North America independent.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from independent.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Aerial view of the Chilkat River, near Haines, Alaska USA.
Blaine Harrington III
Copyright 2016 Blaine Harrington III ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Conservationists are hoping the incoming Biden administration will reverse the Trump administration’s removal of Roadless Area Conservation Rule protections for 9 million acres of southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, North America’s largest temperate rainforest. The Trump administration’s October 2020 decision affects nearly half of the Tongass, which harbors the largest remaining tracts of old-growth forest in the country and is one of the crown jewels of our national forest system.
The roadless rule, established by the U.S. Forest Service 20 years ago today, was intended to conserve exceptional swaths of public lands by preventing all development in these places, even the construction of roads. Science shows that road building can lead to rapid degradation of ecosystems, especially when followed by logging, mining, and other in