Logging and road building will be once again banned in much of Alaska's Tongass Forest.
Joel Jackson, the president of the Organized Village of Kake, a tribal community, has lived within the Tongass National Forest in Alaska his entire life. His community relies on the land for hunting deer and fishing salmon that swim in streams kept cold by the old-growth forest.
Last week marked a long-awaited victory for Mr Jackson and other tribes and environmental groups who petitioned the US Department of Agriculture to reinstate the protections for the forest. Spanning nearly 17 million acres - an area slightly larger than the state of West Virginia - the Tongass stores 44% of all the carbon dioxide contained in national forests across the country, according to the Alaska Conservation Foundation.
The decision to reinstate a rule blocking logging and road-building in the Tongass reflects the voices of Tribal Nations and the people of Southeast Alaska, while taking into account the importance of fishing and tourism to the region's economy, US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a recent statement.
In a statement last week, Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, argued the Biden Administration's decision to reinstate protections turned "the Tongass into a political football", and would hinder local economic development.
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