Washington, D.C. – The Bush administration’s proposal to exempt the Tongass National Forest from the Roadless Area Conservation Rule will cost American taxpayers tens of millions in increased timber subsidies, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS), a national budget watchdog organization.

“This decision to appease the Alaska delegation and big timber companies will hit American taxpayers where it hurts. This move will continue the cycle of subsidies to wasteful logging operations in Alaska,” said Shannon Collier, Policy Analyst with TCS.

By creating certain limitations on road building and development efforts on designated national forest lands, the roadless rule saves taxpayer dollars by reducing subsidies to expensive logging operations. As the largest forest in the national forest system, Alaska’s Tongass National Forest already tops the list of money losing national forests.

“At last count, the Tongass National Forest lost about $33.7 million in taxpayer dollars through its timber program. In addition, the Forest Service estimates deferred road maintenance and capitol improvement needs for the Tongass to be more than $800 million,” continued Collier.

The Forest Service already maintains a $10 billion backlog for deferred road and bridge capitol improvement and maintenance needs in the national forest road system, and incurs multimillion dollars losses annually from the federal timber program. However, the Forest Service is no longer required to publicly report these annual program losses.

“The administration’s decision to exempt the largest national forest from the roadless rule will open the floodgates for taxpayer losses and undermine the stability of funds available for firefighting and other immediate threats,” concluded Collier.

Public comment on this action will be accepted until August 14, 2003. Public input will help guide the administration as it considers a related rule change for the lower forty-eight states; this ruling is expected in September.

Contact: Keith Ashdown
(202) 546-8500 x110