TAKE ACTION! STOP A MASSIVE DEAD=END ROAD FROM BEING BUILT THROUGH THE TONGASS NATIONAL FOREST
Holly Harris, Earthjustice
As an attorney in Earthjustice’s Alaska office, I can tell you first-hand there is already widespread opposition to this mega project. In 2011, we represented several community groups in a legal challenge that successfully shut down this same project. Our lawsuit led a federal court to declare the environmental analysis inadequate because it failed to take a hard look at ferry alternatives.
We need your help to stop this bad idea a second time.
Building this highway would require clear-cutting vast swaths of roadless rainforest in the Tongass—our nation’s largest national forest. And the fact, is this road is unnecessary, because Alaska’s ferry system already connects Juneau to Haines and Skagway in a safer and cheaper fashion. What’s worse, the road would dead-end at an uninhabited river delta and compromise Berners Bay, one of the most important marine and estuarine ecosystems in Alaska.
Yet the Alaska Department of Transportation is forging ahead by requesting a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers.
If this project goes through, it would destroy wetlands, tidal areas, and fish habitat, and cut through important habitat for bald eagles, bears, marten, mountain goats, moose, Steller Sea lions, and the Alexander Archipelago wolf.
Time and time again, Earthjustice supporters like you have fought to protect America's rainforest and helped us win! We need your help again today.
Patrick, we are now faced with one of the most environmentally hostile Congresses in history, and it will have the nation’s public lands and wildlife in its crosshairs, including places like the Tongass.
Sincerely,
Holly Harris
Attorney, Earthjustice