The U.S. Supreme Court will not take up a case that could have expanded logging in Southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest.
It’s the final step in a legal battle against what’s called the Roadless Rule, which bans logging and road-building in most undeveloped national forest areas.
The rule was put in place in 2001, but Alaska later won an exemption.
A western appeals court ruled against that exemption last year. On Monday, the Supreme Court decided not to hear the state’s appeal, which lets that decision stand.
Tom Waldo of the Earthjustice environmental law firm applauds the decision.
“It just doesn’t make any sense to keep trying to build expensive new roads that no one can afford to maintain into the wild and remote parts of the Tongass,” Waldo said.
Roadless Rule supporters say it protects fisheries and wildlife habitat critical to the region’s tourism and salmon industries.
Owen Graham of the Alaska Forest Association trade group says the Supreme Court action delivers a substantial blow to a hard-hit regional economy.
“What the timber industry needs desperately is a timber supply,” said Graham. “And this is one of a number of issues that are preventing us from having that timber supply.”
State officials were not immediately available for an interview. But they issued a statement calling the exemption a negotiated settlement between Alaska and the federal government.
In the statement, Assistant Attorney General Cori Mills says the exemption recognized that Alaska’s Tongass is different than national forests in the Lower-48.
While the Supreme Court’s lack of action ends this case, the state continues challenging the roadless rule in the courts.
A separate lawsuit, filed in an eastern court, challenges the whole rule, as well as its Alaska provisions.