Boreal Forest
 We support the conservation of Alaska's boreal forests for the long-term protection of healthy functioning ecosystems, wilderness and wild values, and compatible human uses.
Interior Alaska is part of a boreal forest ecosystem that also stretches across Russia, Canada, Scandinavia, and parts of the Korean Peninsula, China, Mongolia and Japan.
Boreal forests represent the single largest terrestrial ecosystem on earth, making up one third of the world's forests.
The trees here are small and hardy, able to withstand winter temperatures that sometimes drop to -50 degrees or colder. Common species include white spruce, black spruce, birch, aspen, and balsam poplar (cottonwood).
 Alaska's boreal forest is an important part of the state's character and heritage. Subsistence hunting and gathering are important examples of how people depend on forests for more than timber. Healthy forests support a diverse ecology. Interior Alaska is home to healthy fish populations, including fall chum salmon, as well as populations of moose, black bear, grizzly bear, lynx, wolf, and many smaller mammals and birds. Blueberries, cranberries, and other wild berries are abundant in the late summer and fall.
Conservation of boreal forests is important for wildlife, human uses, and the mitigating effects these forests play in global climate change. However, in recent years there has been increasing pressure to log these forests, despite their relatively low market value.
As conservationists, we feel that ecological and economic concerns are not necessarily mutually exclusive. In many cases, local economies prosper when the economy diversifies from simple export harvesting, which employs very few people, to a combination of sustainable uses, which may include value-added processing, tourism, and recreation -- so long as these industries are practiced in a manner that is ecologically sound and tenable indefinitely.
 In general, we support local, small-scale uses of timber for house logs, firewood, and some value-added projects. We oppose large-scale clearcut logging and export logging.
Alaskan forests are under the ownership of the Federal government, the State, Native Corporations, the University of Alaska, and private individuals. For each type of ownership, different rules and restrictions for management apply, and different environmental concerns arise. While some problems fall squarely under the jurisdiction of public land management, many private owners have also rapidly liquidated their forest assets with little attention to long-term goals. The Tanana Valley State Forest includes approximately 2 million acres within the boreal region; it is managed for multiple use.
A Size Comparison:
- Tanana watershed: 21,000,000 acres
- Tanana Valley State Forest: 1,800,000 acres
- Yosemite National Park: 747,956 acres
- Big Bend National Park: 801,000 acres
- Voyageurs National Park: 218,054 acres
Our forests are vast, but they are also fragile. Forest health is crucial for protecting our air and water, for supporting abundant plant and animal life and the subsistence lifestyles that rely on them, and for maintaining the reputation of Alaska as one of the last, best places on earth.
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