Alaska Forest Association, a timber company, and a timber sale operator sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Forest Service and the Agriculture Secretary and Forest Service Chief in federal district court in Alaska alleging that the 2021 adoption of the Southeast Alaska  Sustainability Strategy violated the Administrative Procedure Act. They alleged that a 2016 management plan promulgated under the Tongass Timber Reform Act “promised” the harvest of old-growth timber from the Tongass National Forest and that the 2021 Strategy ended such harvest and shifted forest management resources “to support forest restoration, recreation and resilience, including for climate, wildlife habit[at] and watershed improvement” without going through proper rulemaking procedures. The <a href="https://www.usda.gov/about-usda/news/press-releases/2021/07/15/usda-announces-southeast-alaska-sustainability-strategy-initiates-action-work-tribes-partners-and">press release</a> announcing the Strategy had stated that “[l]arge old-growth trees in the Tongass are critical for carbon sequestration, addressing the climate crisis and maintaining the productivity and health of the region’s fisheries and fishing industry” and that the Strategy as “in line with the Biden-Harris Administration’s approach to climate-smart forest management and conservation nationally.”

Lawsuit challenging the Biden administration's 2021 adoption of the Southeast Alaska  Sustainability Strategy that restricted old growth logging in the Tongass National Forest.

Alaska Forest Association v. U.S. Department of Agriculture

<p>This entry was provided by the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. Please see the terms of use for citation and licensing of third party data.</p>

Logging Industry Plaintiffs Challenged Sustainability Strategy for Tongass National Forest

Filed

United States of America

Alaska

The Climate Litigation Database

Find climate change litigation data and indicators for {text}.

{text} litigation

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law provides Climate Litigation Database, a comprehensive database of US and Global climate change caselaw

Quickly and easily search through the complete text of thousands of climate change law and policy documents from every country.

Search the Climate Litigation Database

An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

Either money or something of monetary value is transferred between two or more organisations, people or countries.

Actions or measures to adapt terrestrial systems to climate change.

People with different national or cultural traditions from the dominant population

Social and cultural groups that share collective ancestral ties to the lands and natural resources where they live, occupy or from which they have been displaced

Jobs that contribute to preserving or restoring the environment. We include jobs which require a high amount of green skills or which spend much of their time on green activities, as well as jobs transforming polluting industries.

Activities that involve planning, designing and building infrastructure, residential, and commercial structures.

Activities of government agencies and institutions that provide public services, enforce laws and manage public resources.

Activities that involve the cultivation of crops and raising of livestock for food, fibre, and other products essential for human life and industry.

Activities that relate to the production of goods and services from forests.

Activities involving the catching, processing, and selling of fish for food, recreation, and industry.

Logging Industry Plaintiffs Challenged Sustainability Strategy for Tongass National Forest

Impacted group

Just transition

Renewable energy

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience

Finance