Forest Protection
Dear Editor: Growing up in western Washington State, I promised myself that I would never live someplace that rained for the majority of the year. I moved around the world and back again and, wouldn’t you know it, found myself standing in Sitka, Alaska, having fallen in love with this town from the first day I set foot in it. Talking to others, I know this experience isn’t uncommon.
What continues to draw me to this town is not only the community of people I’ve found here, but the closeness of the outdoors. In 10 minutes I can hop from my doorstep into the mountains, or trot down to the water for a kayak trip. Whether I go deep into the backcountry of just through Totem Park, the breadth of the Tongass National Forest continues to amaze me.
The Tongass National Forest is the reason I am here and the reason why I’ve been able to continue to live and work in Sitka. Every job I’ve had, from a tour bus driver to a kayak guide, a fish plant worker to an employee at a Lincoln Street business, has depended on the health of the land around us.
The connections I have to the forest personally and professionally are why I support keeping the Roadless Rule in place. Over 224,000 visitors will come to our neck of the woods in 2019, and they’re coming to see this special place we get to call home. Over the course of this summer, the Forest Service will decide whether or not to repeal this critical piece of legislation in favor of clearcut logging and road construction in the Tongass. The Roadless Rule in the Tongass already allows for development in measured amounts, including the building of roads for hydropower projects, recreation and subsistence, hatchery construction, and more; a repeal of this rule would only serve to make this land all the more vulnerable to outside influences.
We don’t need more allowances for industrial development, but we do need strong and sustainable management of the forest that we all depend on to maintain the lives we live here. The Tongass National Forest brought me to Sitka, and it continues to bring thousands of others. It provides jobs and creates income for our town. Everything that we can do to protect this valuable natural resource should be done.
Elizabeth Borneman, Sitka
