Title:
The Truth About Tongass.
Summary:
A thorough synopsis of the history, influence, and policy effecting southeast Alaska’s old-growth Tongass National Forest.
Topic:
Clear-cut logging and Tongass National Forest.
Category:
Journalistic.
What is it?
National Geographic magazine article.
Publication Information:
Published by National Geographic on September 23, 2004.
Author:
Douglass H. Chadwick.
Location:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0707/feature4/index.html
Accessed:
Feburary,7, 2009.
Support:
Bob Christensen, Sitka Conservation Society—Tongass Ground Truthing-Project.
Richard Christensen, Sitka Conservation Society—Tongass Ground Truthing-Project.
Bob Widmymer, former logger of Tongass at the Ketechikan Mill.
Mark Rey, former timber lobbyist in Congress.
Some experts.
Larry Trumble, logger specializing in mirco sales.
Forest Service officials.
John Schoen, senior scientist of the National Audubon Society.
The sources in this five page feature article from National Geographic show two sides to the Tongass logging dilemma. Bob and Richard Christensen, members of the Sitka Conservation Society and creators of the Tongass Ground Truthing-Project, are two local experts on the Tongass. They provide professional insight into the biology, ecology, and ecosystem of the 16.8 million acre forest. Author Douglass H. Chadwick narrates the history of the Tongass starting a century ago with President Roosevelt’s decision to establish the Tongass as a national forest. Douglass then discusses the current status of logging and government policy. Bob Widmymer, a former logger of the Tongass, provides an example of job loss in the Tongass timber industry due to new legislature. Larry Trumble shows how Tongass logger’s are adapting to new policy by finding different methods of logging other than clear cutting. Mark Rey speaks against the Roadless Rule protecting the Tongass and “some experts” state: “more than 90 percent of the giants among giants—trees exceeding ten feet (three meters) in diameter, “the big pumpkins” as sawyers say—are gone.” Forest Service officials discuss the ecological effects of clear cut logging. And to conclude, John Schoen, the senior scientist at the National Audubon Society, discusses the importance of maintaining unique ecosystems like the Tongass, remarking: “The overriding goal was to ‘get out the cut.’ We’re past that. Everybody is trying to figure out how to do a better job of managing all the values the Tongass has to offer. This is a world-class ecosystem. Its resources deserve world-class efforts to sustain them.”
Audience & Agenda:
National Geographic’s online web site attracts 4.9 million monthly U.S. people while globally attracting 7.7 million monthly people. The web site features articles, maps, photography, news, exhibitions, and educational programs that attract a slightly female, slightly teen audience, with a household income of $30-$100k. National Geographic is funded by News Corporation.
Usefulness:
This article provides me with an example of inadequate funding for national forest considerations. The article provides use able, hard facts that point to conservation rather than resource extraction. Here are some of these facts:
“Much has fallen to the ax and saw. In the lower 48 states, 96 percent of old-growth forest of all types has been cut down. The Tongass now represents not only the greatest remaining reserve of huge trees in the U.S., but also nearly one-third of the old-growth temperate rain forest left in the world.
“With only three modest-size mills and ten small ones scattered around the region today, the Tongass timber industry provides about 200 jobs—less than one percent of total employment in Southeast Alaska. The gargantuan cruise ships plying the waters hire nearly a thousand workers—on each vessel. In Ketchikan alone (city population 8,000), more than 800,000 visitors walk off cruise ship decks and into the stores every year, generating upwards of 120 million dollars in tourism revenue.”
“The Tongass National Forest itself has a staff of 600 to 700. In an average year, the agency spends some 30 million dollars overseeing timber programs. Many of the logging sales it puts up for bid have no takers. Others stay in limbo because of lawsuits filed by conservationists. For the approximately 50 million board feet (118,000 cubic meters) the Forest Service does manage to sell annually, it receives about $750,000. The deficit therefore comes to $29,250,000. Dividing that by 200 Tongass timber jobs, the government could pay each logger and mill worker $146,250 a year to stay home and let the rain forest be.”
Works cited:
www.quantcast.com
March 13, 2009 at 9:11 am |
[...] Journalistic: “The Truth About Tongass.” [...]