Alaska tribe and NGOs sue to halt massive Tongass logging plan

The Ketchikan Indian Community, represented by tribe president Gloria Ilsxilee Stáng Burns, joined by the Center for Biological Diversity and the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, has taken legal action to stop the U.S. Forest Service’s South Revilla logging proposal. The contested Alternative 2 would harvest over 4,000 acres of old-growth and another 1,000 acres of surrounding rainforest on Revillagigedo Island, potentially affecting about 21 percent of the existing productive old-growth in the project area.

Plaintiffs cite a Forest Service analysis that predicts negative impacts on subsistence hunting, wildlife habitats, and key species such as Sitka black-tailed deer. They argue the agency’s decision breaches the Administrative Procedure Act and the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, asserting that the economic justification does not outweigh the environmental and cultural costs. The Forest Service has not commented, and the lawsuit arrives as the federal government moves to repeal the 2001 Roadless Rule, which previously protected millions of acres from development.