Trump Allows Logging in One of the Biggest Intact Temperate Rainforests in the World

Under a new rule by the Trump administration, the 16.7 million acres that make up the Alaskan Tongass National Forest will be fair game to logging and other development, according to The Washington Post. The decision, which takes effect Thursday, will destroy protections for one of the biggest intact temperate rainforests in the entire world, allowing logging companies to build roads and get rid of the forest’s old-growth timber. “While tropical rainforests are the lungs of the planet, the Tongass is the lungs of North America,” Dominick DellaSala, chief scientist of the Earth Island Institute’s Wild Heritage project, said. “It’s America’s last climate sanctuary.” Trump reportedly hopes that the order will repair economic damage from the pandemic. In a conversation with Alaska Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, Trump allegedly asked, “How the [expletive] do you have an economy without roads?”