Alaska Rainforest Campaign (ARC)
(click the above link to visit the ARC web site)

Alaska’s temperate old-growth rainforest, covering a 1,000-mile arc of coastline from Ketchikan to Kodiak, presents one of the most compelling conservation opportunities in the world today. Alaska contains approximately 40 percent of the world’s remaining temperate rainforest. With 5 million acres of old-growth forest, the region is an internationally significant reservoir of biodiversity and wilderness. More than 90 percent of this unique ecosystem is in public ownership and lies within the Tongass and Chugach National Forests, the two largest national forests in the country.

The Alaska Rainforest Campaign was created to protect this magnificent ecosystem. ARC is a coalition of national and Alaska conservation groups that work to protect the remaining wild lands of the Tongass and Chugach National Forests from clearcutting and other harmful development. The Alaska Rainforest Campaign has overarching goals:

• To permanently protect roadless areas of the Tongass and Chugach from logging and other harmful development, and
• To limit logging in the Tongass and Chugach National Forests to no more than today's historically low levels.

For the past decade, Alaska Rainforest Campaign has helped protect vast acreage of forests from destructive clearcut logging practices and continues to advocate for sensible resource management. As a result of ARC’s work, clearcut logging continues to be at historic lows, and unsustainable 50-year timber contracts have been eliminated.

Major ARC accomplishments during the last year include:

• Ending taxpayer subsidies for road building in the Tongass. Through skillful organizing, education, and outreach, the Alaska Rainforest Campaign secured a winning vote in the U.S. House of Representatives to eliminate taxpayer subsidies for new logging roads in the Tongass National Forest. The strong bipartisan vote was one of only a few environmental victories in the House during the past 5 years. The Campaign's success drew upon its efforts to shift the political and public debate on the Tongass from a solely roadless message to a more inclusive fiscal/taxpayer message and develop a diverse coalition of supporters including taxpayer, business, and sporting constituencies.
• Sustaining an historically low level of timber harvested from the Tongass and Chugach by:
• Vigorously challenging timber sales.
• Educating the public and businesses that there is more than enough timber on the existing road system to feed sawmills at double their current operating rates.
• Drawing considerable media attention to the Bush administration's decision to exempt the Tongass and Chugach National Forests from the Roadless Rule and its failed logging policies.
• Educating timber companies about the biological significance of the Tongass National Forest, in addition to the poor economics and environmental costs associated with timber operations in the area.
• Sustaining national attention and exposure for Alaska’s rainforest ecosystems by securing coverage in 60 editorials and more than 30 news features.