Letter: Bryan applauded for efforts to preserve national forests

The Alaska Rainforest Campaign would like the people of Nevada to know how much we appreciate Nevada Sen. Richard Bryan's efforts to reduce taxpayer-subsidized clear-cutting in our national forests.

Alaska is home to the country's two largest national forests, the Tongass and the Chugach. They are the biggest and best remaining stands of the temperate old-growth rain forest that used to cover the entire Pacific Northwest coast. For decades, though, it has been federal policy to subsidize widespread clearcutting of this national treasure.

The Tongass timber program cost taxpayers $33 million last year -- far and away the biggest money loser in the national forest system. Under the Forest Service's new plan for the Tongass, there will be even more logging roads, more clear-cuts and even bigger bills for taxpayers.

That's why we are so pleased that Bryan wants to slash the Forest Service's budget for subsidized logging. He wants to reallocate half the savings to repair past environmental damage inflicted on national forests; the rest would go back to the U.S. Treasury.

It is an honorable and worthwhile endeavor. Nevadans can be proud that Bryan is leading the charge.

Matthew Zencey, Campaign manager, Anchorage, Alaska

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