"In Alaska, a Battle to Keep Trees, or an Industry, Standing"

"THORNE BAY, Alaska — The Tongass National Forest, a panoply of snow-dusted peaks and braided rivers, slender fjords and more than 5,000 islands draped over a stretch of Pacific coastline, is widely viewed as one of America’s great natural treasures. Under pressure from environmentalists, the Obama administration pledged four years ago to phase out logging of virgin woodlands here.

Yet the Forest Service is now preparing its largest auction of it in a decade: 9.7 square miles of hemlock, spruce and cedar near this island hamlet. An additional four square miles are planned for sale later, and seven more after that. And conservationists, crying betrayal, are in court again, trying to force a reappraisal of the auctions in the world’s largest temperate rain forest.

Environmental groups filed three lawsuits against the Forest Service last month. Perhaps the most significant of them contends that further logging threatens an already struggling Alaskan wolf, defying a federal law requiring the service to protect wildlife on its lands."

Michael Wines reports for the New York Times September 27, 2014.