Tongass Steelhead Habitat Could Be At Risk From Roadless Rule

The following press release is courtesy of Trout Unlimited Alaska:

Dear Steelhead Enthusiast,

If catching a large steelhead on a small stream in Southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest is on your bucket list, please read on.

Our nation’s largest National Forest, the Tongass, provides excellent habitat for fish and wildlife. The forest is currently threatened by a proposed repeal of the national Roadless Rule. Your help is needed to ensure sensitive salmon, trout and steelhead habitat currently covered under the rule is conserved. Click here to weigh in now.

Fishing and tourism interests, which rely on a healthy forest, have been cast aside for political favors for the outdated and harmful old-growth logging industry, which seeks to expand road building and clear-cut logging of valuable old growth timber in undeveloped, wild areas of the Tongass called ‘Roadless’ areas. These activities are harmful to fish and thus, the economy and way of life in Southeast Alaska and some of the best wild steelhead fishing opportunity on the planet.

Right now, we have an opportunity to tell the Forest Service we do not want clear-cut old-growth logging to harm fish habitat, and the Roadless Rule needs to stay in place. 

Healthy fish and wildlife habitat provides recreation, food, jobs, and income to Southeast Alaska through commercial, subsistence, and recreational fishing and tourism. The Roadless areas in the Tongass are what make this place a unique treasure that is worth protecting.

Add your voice today: Tell the U.S. Forest Service that you support the no-action alternative and oppose changes to the current Roadless Rule in the Tongass.  

The Tongass is one of the few places in the world where wild?salmon, steelhead?and trout still thrive. People throughout Alaska and the rest of the country depend on and enjoy the healthy productive rivers and the wild fish of the Tongass. Thank you for taking a moment to comment today.