Alaska logging

[lefty48]

More than three million acres in the Tongass National Forest in Alaska would be open to logging under a federal plan that supporters believe will revive the state’s struggling timber industry.

The Bush administration’s new management plan for the forest, the largest in the country at nearly 17 million acres, would leave about 3.4 million acres open to logging, road building and other development, including about 2.4 million acres that are now remote and roadless.

The Alaska Forest Association, an industry group, said the plan fell short of industry’s needs. If necessary, the group said, it will challenge the plan in court — a threat also made by environmentalists.

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Not explained: Ice caps and other barren land are an extremely significant chunk of the 17 million-acre "forest." If you don't know about the Tongass, and like the woods, check it out.

How many actual residents might benefit, and really for how long, from a little more logging? I'd be surprised if it passed a figure in four digits. Nothing against them, but it's a really tiny, "special interest" group, compared with most other rural areas of the nation.