The Tongass National Forest has been a topic of national debate for decades, with various presidential administrations going back and forth between conserving the forest or logging within this vast track of federal lands. The recent policies of the Trump administration highlight this continuing conflict of attempting to eliminate wasteful government spending while simultaneously expanding the expensive logging operations within the Tongass. The contradiction between these two policies of the Trump administration demonstrates a flaw within its economic and environmental strategies, prioritizing short-term resource extraction at the cost of both economic efficiency and the nation’s long-term interests.
The Tongass National Forest is an ecosystem in a league of its own. Located in Southeast Alaska, the Tongass spans nearly 17 million acres, making it the largest national forest in the United States. Alaska and the Tongass are home to the largest temperate rainforest in the world and contain “more biomass per acre than any other rainforest in the world.” The Tongass National Forest stores more than 44 percent of all stored carbon within our National Forest system, making it a critical resource for battling climate change.
Increasing logging in the Tongass National Forest is a financially irresponsible endeavor for the federal government that misrepresents the American people’s values and future generations’ needs. The economic costs of maintaining logging operations within the region outweigh the potential economic benefits of the short-term resource extraction. This raises questions and concerns about how the Trump administration could prioritize the expansion of logging in the Tongass while calling for federal fiscal responsibility.
On January 20, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order titled Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential. The executive order attempts to “unlock” the protected natural resources within Alaska on federal and state lands for development and exploitation. The executive order refers to timber as one of the resources that will raise the “prosperity of our citizens and enhance our nation’s economic and national security for generations to come.” Within this executive order, Trump directed the secretary of agriculture to remove the Tongass National Forest from the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, thus allowing 9.4 million acres of national forest to open as a timber resource for the United States.
On February 19, 2025, President Trump’s White House released a “Fact Sheet” regarding the administration's efforts to reform the federal bureaucracy. The administration outlined goals to end ineffective government programs and prevent the government from spending billions of dollars on “expenditures that fail to align with American values or address the needs of the American people.” President Trump also created the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is tasked with identifying and eliminating wasteful government spending, “ensuring that taxpayer dollars are spent wisely and effectively.”
The combination of the Trump administration’s policies regarding expanding logging within the Tongass National Forest and goals of reducing government spending highlight the contradictions between the administration’s fiscal and resource development strategies.
Alaska is vast and remote from the Lower 48 and the rest of the world. The costs of infrastructure and transporting natural resources are significantly higher when working in a state disconnected from the rest of the nation. These increased costs have led the federal government to spend $1.96 billion on logging within the Tongass over the last four decades to generate $227 million in revenue. Between 1999 and 2018, the United States Forest Service (USFS) “lost” $598.2 million dollars in taxpayer money and harvested over 977 million board feet of timber within the Tongass. The controversy and expense of logging within the Tongass make timber sales in the region unpopular with the timber industry. During Trump’s first term in 2019, a federal timber sale within the Tongass National Forest received zero bids after two attempts by the USFS to sell the land for logging.
The timber industry in Southeast Alaska employed just 291 people in 2023, making up less than 1 percent of the jobs in the region. In contrast, protection of the Tongass National Forest from logging is vital to the tourism industry, with the forest’s natural beauty being a primary factor for tourists traveling to Alaska. In comparison to timber, the tourism industry employed 8,263 people in 2023, demonstrating a 26 percent percent increase from 2022. Tourism within the Tongass generated $350 million in 2023, making it the number-one industry within the region. In just one year, tourism within Tongass National Forest contributed more money to the U.S. and state economy than four decades of timber production in the Tongass. The comparison between timber and tourism’s economic viability demonstrates the need for the USFS to focus on recreation and conservation instead of logging to ensure maximum returns for federal investments.
This financial disparity contradicts the DOGE mission of eliminating wasteful government spending. Continuously pushing for timber sales in the Tongass despite consistent financial losses and lack of industry demand for timber from the region demonstrates the exact type of ineffective government spending that DOGE was created to eliminate. Pushing for logging in the Tongass only furthers the financial burden on taxpayers, in direct opposition to Trump’s policy to end “ineffective government programs.”
The vast majority of Americans support the 2001 Roadless Rule, which ensures the conservation of our national forests for future generations. When Trump rescinded the Roadless Rule’s protection for the Tongass in 2020, only 1 percent of the 267,000 comments submitted during the USFS environmental review supported removing roadless restrictions. Furthermore, all five of the Alaska Native groups who were working with the federal government to manage the Tongass withdrew as cooperating agencies after the rule was rescinded. The public opinion is clear: Americans value the protection of the Tongass National Forest. The Trump administration’s removal of the protections from logging in the Tongass “fails to align with American values,” an outcome the president claimed to prioritize avoiding.
By ignoring the Tongass National Forest’s role in fighting climate change, the Trump administration’s logging policies contradict the administration’s promise to protect national security for future generations. Logging within the Tongass has the potential to accelerate climate change. Climate change is considered one of the greatest threats to national security within the United States, and it is even considered a “threat multiplier” for current security concerns and environmental stresses.
The Tongass is a vital tool in America’s efforts to slow carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions into the atmosphere. Including aboveground biomass and soil storage, the Tongass stores around 2.7 billion metric tons of carbon, making it a vital carbon sink. Scientists and economists have estimated the median social cost of carbon dioxide to be $417 per ton of CO2, and this calculation leads to an estimated social cost of the carbon stored in the Tongass of $1.126 trillion. The value of the Tongass remaining as a carbon sink is an astronomical resource for future generations as they are confronted with the harsh realities of climate change. Instead of benefiting national security, expanding logging within the Tongass threatens it by accelerating climate change and undermining the environmental well-being of future generations of Americans.
The Trump administration has mistakenly targeted the Tongass for increased timber production; but the administration’s plan to expand logging also contradicts its commitment to cutting wasteful government spending. Decades of timber sales in the region provide evidence that the costs of logging in the Tongass consistently far exceed profits, creating an ongoing financial drain on taxpayers. Simultaneously, the Tongass contributes exponentially to the economy through tourism, providing thousands of jobs and generating significantly more revenue annually than the timber industry. Despite clear public support for the conservation of this region, the administration prioritizes resource extraction, which provides marginal short-term benefits over the nation’s long-term economic and environmental stability.
Instead, President Trump should harmonize his goals of ensuring the federal government is fiscally responsible and working toward the values of the American people by investing in the conservation and restoration of the Tongass. The Tongass does not have to be a money pit where federal funding disappears down a black hole; instead, these funds can be the seed that grows the tourism industry, providing economic and environmental benefits to our nation.
