Tongass National Forest

The agency files it as “Special Areas; Roadless Area Conservation”

Timing

The agency stopped taking comments on October 6. What you find still counts: it backs the formal objections from people who did comment, it goes to the lawyers on the fight, and it is the story.

What to go and check

On the Tongass, walk past the end of an existing road into unlogged forest and shoot the biggest standing trees with a pack or person for scale, the tall dead snags, and the canopy looking straight up.

The decision

USDA is proposing to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which bars road building and most timber harvesting on about 44.7 million acres of National Forest System lands; Colorado and Idaho have their own roadless rules, so the 2001 rule isn't in effect there. If finalized, it'd eliminate those nationwide protections and shift management decisions to individual national forests throug

Read the whole thing, and write to the agency about it

How to record it so it counts

01Stand in the patch of forest the document names. Agencies mark these with a numbered tag, a sign or colored flagging tied to a tree; photograph it if you find one, and don’t touch it.
02Pick the five largest trees within about 20 meters of where you stand. Photograph each with a person, a trekking pole or a tape in the frame for scale.
03If you have a tape, measure each trunk around at chest height and write the number down. Circumference in inches is fine; we convert.
04Photograph the canopy straight up, and any standing dead trees (snags) and big downed logs.
05Turn slowly and take a photo every quarter turn: four photos, one 360.
06Write one paragraph: what the stand looks like to you, in your own words.

What would count

A scale reference in the frame. A wide shot of big trees proves little; a tape does.
The measurement, written down, beside the photo it belongs to.
That marker somewhere in your set of photos, so nobody can argue you were in the wrong patch of woods.

All of it, with the phone settings, in the field guide

Are you going?

Say yes or no. It tells the next person whether anyone has this ground covered, and it is the only way we know a request was answered rather than just read. You can change your mind any time, and nobody follows up.

Join, then say you’re going

Nobody has answered yet

Before you go

Public land only. Plenty of land inside a national forest or park boundary is privately owned, and that is not yours to walk on. A gate or a closure sign means stop. Check the rules for the specific place you are going, because they differ.
Don’t touch survey stakes, flagging, equipment or anything a crew left. Photograph it; leave it.
Don’t approach crews, contractors or agency staff about the project. Don’t interfere with any operation.
Wildlife at a distance. No drones in wilderness or anywhere they’re prohibited. Stay off closed roads and trails.
If you’re not sure, don’t. Weather, terrain, water, fire and people are your call, and yours alone.

More Than Just Parks doesn’t direct where you go or what you do. Terms.