Feds ask court to dismiss timber industry lawsuit that aims to increase Tongass old-growth logging

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The largest timber companies operating in Southeast Alaska want the Tongass National Forest to sell them more old-growth timber, and they’re suing the federal government to get it. The Department of Justice asked the court to throw the case out in May.

The Alaska Forest Association along with two of their members, Viking Lumber and Alcan Timber, filed the lawsuit in March, alleging that the U.S. Department of Agriculture failed to fulfill a promise to supply the companies with enough timber to meet market demand. But the government filed a motion to dismiss the case, writing that it didn’t make such a promise.

The case comes after President Trump issued two executive orders aimed at expanding logging in the Tongass this March, and follows decades of legal disputes over Tongass timber. 

Frank Garrison is an attorney with Pacific Legal Foundation representing the timber industry. He said the industry has faced a 30-year decline, and that Viking and Alcan are struggling. 

“They’re on the brink of collapse,” he said. 

He said the companies rely almost completely on old-growth timber offered by the Tongass National Forest.

The government argues in the motion that it is only required to “seek to” provide enough timber to meet market demand while balancing other forest uses and ensuring their sustainability — as written in the 1990 Tongass Timber Reform Act. The law eliminated an old requirement for the Tongass to supply 4.5 billion board feet of timber per decade. The DOJ argues that the agency is not legally required to provide a specific amount of timber to companies.

The DOJ also writes in the motion that the timber sale objectives in the 2016 Tongass National Forest Management Plan are aspirational goals, not binding commitments that can be challenged in court. Furthermore, the government asserts that plaintiffs don’t point to a specific agency action or rule that has been violated. 

But Garrison said that the management plan gave timber companies an expectation that they would have roughly 15 years to transition their businesses from old-growth to new growth trees, and provided estimated amounts of old-growth timber that they could expect to buy. 

“The timber industry, including our clients, relied on the management plan when they were figuring out how they were going to run their business for the next decade,” Garrison said.

When the Forest Service announced the Southeast Alaska Sustainability Strategy in 2021, which proposed to end old-growth logging, Garrison said the agency abandoned its commitment to a slow transition.

The Forest Service has not met its annual target for timber sales in Alaska since 2014, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report published last year. Demand for forest products from the Tongass between 2015 and 2030 is estimated to range from roughly 41 to 76 million board feet per year, according to a Forest Service study published in 2016, the most recent market analysis. Between 2020 and 2023, the Forest Service offered sales for a total of 14 million board feet.

Garrison said he hopes that two recent Supreme Court decisions will tip the lawsuit in the industry’s favor. The first is DHS v. Regents, a 2019 case that set a precedent that federal agencies must consider whether those benefiting from a policy rely significantly on its continuation before upending it.

The second case is Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which overruled a legal doctrine called Chevron deference last year. The doctrine directed courts to defer to federal agency interpretations of ambiguous laws. Now, the courts must use their independent judgment to interpret laws that agencies administer. It’s unclear whether these new precedents on agency discretion will factor into this case.

Nonprofit environmental law firm Earthjustice is representing a group that seeks to intervene in the case. It includes the Organized Village of Kasaan, the Organized Village of Kake, a boat tour company, Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, Natural Resources Defense Council, Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, and The Wilderness Society.

Earthjustice Attorney Kate Glover agrees with the DOJ that the case should be thrown out because the industry hasn’t challenged a specific agency action. She said that timber companies are looking for a wholesale policy change.

“The timber industry plaintiffs are asking the court essentially to order the region to take a step backwards — to go back to a long-gone era of large timber sales, large clear cuts, where we make that the priority for the use of old-growth forests,” Glover said.

Joel Jackson is president of the Organized Village of Kake, a tribe based on Kupreanof Island. He said the forest’s health is vital to support an abundance of salmon, deer and moose. Since heavy logging moved out, he said the tribe’s food security has improved. Jackson does not want to see old-growth logging scale back up. Instead, he wants the old-growth to be preserved for future generations to experience it as he has. 

“It’s like walking into one of the most beautiful cathedrals you could ever walk into anywhere in the world,” Jackson said of the forest.

The tourism industry brings significantly more money into Southeast Alaska than the timber industry. Jackson said the two are at odds because visitors come to see one of the last protected temperate rainforests in the world, not clear-cut logging in the mountains. 

Maggie Rabb is the Executive Director of the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, one of the environmental groups trying to intervene in the case. She said that the timber industry’s demands are out of line with what most Southeast Alaskans want for the Tongass.

“They want nuanced, science-based, responsive management. And that does not look like one logging company telling the Forest Service how much they need, and letting that drive decisions about how we manage our forests,” Rabb said.

The Tongass National Forest is undergoing a revision to its management plan, which will update timber sale objectives. The new plan is expected to be completed in 2028. 

The USDA, DOJ and Forest Service declined to comment. The timber industry must file a response to the DOJ’s motion to dismiss the case by June 24.