 Dear friend,
One more day. That’s all the time we’ve got left to stop timber companies from clearcutting thousands of acres of Alaska’s 17-million-acre Tongass National Forest,reducing majestic, centuries-old trees to diminutive stumps.
That’s just 24 hours to rescue precious habitat for bears and wild coho salmon, blackâtailed deer and goshawks. About 1,400 minutes to safeguard one of the country’s premier attractions for anglers and kayakers — and one of the world’s most significant carbon reserves — from the Forest Service-sanctioned, taxpayer-subsidized razing of the world’s largest remaining temperate rainforest.
Put bluntly, friend, it only takes a logger’s chainsaw seconds to fell a Sitka Spruce or Western Hemlock that’s stood for 800 years. And once it’s gone, it’s gone forever.
Scientists and environmental advocates — like the Sierra Club and our partners — have warned for years that destroying the Tongass would seriously hamper efforts to stop climate change. Large, wet forests like the Tongass store more carbon than any other kind — and this old-growth hero absorbs almost one-tenth of the United States’ carbon pollution.
And of course, the idea of sacrificing huge swaths of this rich, wild ecosystem — whose glaciers, mountains and fjords are home not just to bald eagles, porpoises and grizzlies, but to indigenous peoples who have inhabited these lands for centuries — is both appalling and a serious threat to biological diversity for generations to come.
Friend, we need your help now to bring this clearcutting proposal to a grinding halt. We’re turning up the heat on Congress and prepping our legal teams, but if we fall short of tomorrow’s crucial goal, we risk losing the Tongass forever.
With your help, we’ve stepped in to protect the Tongass before. The Sierra Club spearheaded the Roadless Rule that protected millions of acres of national forests. We successfully stopped the removal of Tongass protections in the Supreme Court. We can win this fight, too.
We have the most seasoned activists, the most well-crafted strategies, and millions of the country’s most dedicated grassroots supporters — like you. We believe that with adequate resources, we can pressure Congress to defund this clearcutting plan and save the Tongass for our children and grandchildren. Please help.
Sincerely,
Dan Ritzman
Associate Director, Regional Campaigns
Our Wild America Campaign
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