ÁAK’W KWÁAN AANÍ/JUNEAU, Alaska— A Southeast Alaska Tribe and two conservation groups filed a lawsuit today challenging the U.S. Forest Service’s approval of a 15-year, large-scale old-growth logging project in the Tongass National Forest on Revillagigedo Island east of Ketchikan.

The South Revilla project, which spans more than 40,000 acres on the southern part of the island, would be the largest old-growth logging project in the Tongass in more than a decade.

Logging and roadbuilding authorized by the project would harm subsistence ways of life, allow clearcutting in important recreation areas, fragment the forest, and harm important wildlife species including salmon, deer, goshawk, wolves, marten and black bears. Old-growth trees are important in the Tongass for carbon storage, wildlife, hunting, fishing, cultural traditions and watershed protection.

In addition to causing immense environmental destruction, the cost for the Forest Service to run the Tongass old-growth timber sale program has led to a deficit of hundreds of millions of dollars covered by taxpayers. The South Revilla project is likely to continue this trend.

The Forest Service has also left the public largely in the dark about what parts of the project will actually be sold and logged. The agency intends to make those decisions outside the public process with no transparency. History suggests the largest and most ecologically important trees will be sold first, without regard for the outsized impact that will have on the forest.

The final record of decision for the South Revilla project, issued July 31, authorizes logging of about 60 million board feet of old growth. Young growth sales would total about 23 million board feet. The project also includes 40 miles of new roads and reopens 30 miles of closed roads to access the trees.

In today’s lawsuit, the Tribe and conservation groups say in approving South Revilla, the agency failed to uphold its legal obligations to protect deer harvested for subsistence and the Queen Charlotte goshawk, an old-growth-dependent sensitive species. These flaws violate multiple federal laws including the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, the National Forest Management Act, the Multiple Use and Sustained Yield Act and the Administrative Procedure Act.

Ketchikan Indian Community, the Center for Biological Diversity and Southeast Alaska Conservation Council filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Alaska. The Tribe and conservation groups are represented by Earthjustice.

The South Revilla project is largely the same as one proposed in 2020, under the first Trump administration. A draft environmental impact statement was prepared for that project, but it was ultimately shelved due to widespread opposition. Despite continued opposition, the project was resurrected earlier this year.

Following are comments from Ketchikan Indian Community, the groups and Earthjustice:

President Gloria Ilsxilee Stáng Burns, Ketchikan Indian Community: “We as Indigenous peoples have cared for these lands and waters since time immemorial. Our traditional and ecological knowledge comes from generations of living with, learning from, and caring for this place. It cannot continue to be treated as an afterthought in decisions about our homelands, nor can our lands and resources simply be viewed as commodities to be exploited.

“We will not stand by while decisions are made that threaten the lands, waters, wildlife, and traditional ways of life our people have depended upon for generations. We carry a responsibility to our ancestors who cared for these lands before us, and to our children and the generations yet unborn who deserve to inherit healthy forests, clean waters, and the ability to continue practicing our traditional ways of life.

“This action by the Forest Service is deeply disappointing, but unfortunately, it is not unexpected. Ketchikan Indian Community will continue to stand up for our people, our traditional knowledge, and our homelands. We have been here since time immemorial, and we will continue fighting to protect these lands and waters for as long as it takes. That responsibility does not end with us. It is something we carry forward for every generation that comes after us.”

“The South Revilla project is untenable — it would authorize extensive logging that values short-term profits for a small number of people over the long-term benefits of protecting our irreplaceable old-growth forests,” said Maggie Rabb, executive director of the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council. “It’s necessary to fight this project with every tool we have because it’s just the start of the destruction this administration has planned for our precious forests and it cannot be undone.”

“This destructive logging project is an assault on the world’s largest remaining temperate old-growth rainforest,” said Marlee Goska, Alaska attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Leaving these ancient trees standing in the Tongass is essential for wildlife like goshawk and wolves, to help fight the climate crisis, and to sustain the cultural well-being and economies of Southeast Alaska communities. We’ve successfully stopped old-growth logging in the Tongass before and we’ll keep fighting to protect these irreplaceable forests.”

“This massive logging project was a terrible idea six years ago when the Trump administration first proposed it and remains a terrible idea today. This project threatens to destroy the most valuable, remaining old-growth forests on Revilla Island and yet the Forest Service says it doesn’t even pencil out for the timber companies,” said Earthjustice attorney Olivia Glasscock. “In approving this, the Forest Service ignored key laws and a management plan designed to prevent this kind of harm. We’re suing to safeguard critical old growth within the Tongass.”

Background

In March 2025, the Trump administration issued an executive order directing federal agencies to increase the volume and speed of logging to “fully exploit our domestic timber supply.” The administration has also proposed repealing the Roadless Rule, which protects 45 million acres of national forest lands, including 9 million acres of the Tongass, from road building and commercial logging.

Congress is similarly pushing for an increase in logging. The budget reconciliation bill that passed last year included a requirement to progressively increase the volume of logging.

Within the Tongass, South Revilla would be the first big old-growth logging project in many years, and could be a preview of more to come. Another large, old-growth sale in the Tongass, Twin Mountain II, is in the planning process on Prince of Wales Island.

In addition, the U.S. Forest Service is currently revising the forest plan for the Tongass. Changes to that plan could shift forest management away from the agency’s Southeast Alaska Sustainability Strategy, which intended to end large-scale old-growth logging within the Tongass.