(The Hill) — The Biden administration has filed its proposal to reinstate protections for the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, taking a major step to reverse a Trump rule allowing logging in large swaths of the forest.
The long-expected move to shield more than 9 million acres was formally announced last week, but the actual proposal appeared in the Federal Register on Tuesday.
The proposal states that it seeks to reinstate the limits on logging and road construction in parts of the forest for a combination of cultural, social, ecologic and economic reasons.
In particular, it points to the forest’s role in keeping carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and its support for biodiversity. The forest is considered to be a major carbon sink — meaning it sucks up more of the gas than it emits, helping to mitigate climate change.