Southeast Alaska’s economy thrives through balance, not timber alone

For 17,000 years, Indigenous people of Southeast Alaska have thrived on these lands

In a Sept. 8 opinion piece, USDA Secretary Rollins suggested Southeast Alaska’s prosperity depends on reviving industrial-scale timber harvests on public lands.

For 17,000 years, Indigenous people of Southeast Alaska have thrived on these lands — not through extraction, but through careful balance. Today, the Tongass continues to serve as a cathedral, a pharmacy, and a pantry, inspiring over one million visitors each year who come to witness its beauty.

The myth that logging prevents economic collapse

Secretary Rollins equates conservation and sustainable forest management with economic decline. This is a dangerous myth. Stewardship does not mean economic harm. Programs like the Southeast Alaska Sustainability Strategy (SASS) create jobs while maintaining healthy forests. Contrary to claims that SASS delivered only “lost jobs, broken promises, and a devastating blow to rural prosperity,” the initiative supports economic, cultural, and ecological resilience.

SASS invests in renewable energy, mariculture, cultural education, youth workforce programs, and tribal co-stewardship of ancestral lands. It does not assume timber is the only path to prosperity. These efforts are seeds of community resilience, rooted in the understanding that economic success can coexist with environmental balance.

Restarting large-scale timber operations in the Tongass National Forest would be complex and costly. Most operators historically came from outside Alaska, legal challenges have left a legacy, and the skilled workforce that once supported industrial logging has largely moved into other industries. Rebuilding infrastructure, supply chains, and expertise would take years. Not to mention that timber harvest on the Tongass starting from the 1950s has captured much of the high volume trees.

Economic reality: Diversification, not collapse

Southeast Alaska’s economy is already thriving through diversification. The Southeast Alaska By the Numbers 2024 report shows jobs grew 3% in 2023, wages outpaced inflation, and regional GDP increased 31%. Tourism jobs rose 26%, while health care, construction, and Tribal Government employment expanded by 9%. This is not a region in collapse — it is a region evolving and diversifying.

For Indigenous people of Southeast Alaska, this economic reality reflects a deeper truth: Thriving comes from balance. Traditional ecological knowledge strengthens decision-making, showing that prosperity can be rooted in centuries of observation, stewardship, and respect for the land.

The real broken promise: Ignoring tribal voices

If there is any betrayal, it lies not in shifting away from clear-cut logging, but in the federal government’s continued failure to uphold their trust responsibility and meaningfully consult with tribes.

Consultation is not a box to be checked. It is a trust responsibility and a legal obligation rooted in treaties, statutes, and executive orders. When an administration places resource extraction above that duty, it breaks more than a policy promise. It breaks the promise that is legally and morally bound to the federal government’s relationship with tribes.

The way forward

The Tongass is a “working forest,” but its work is measured not in board feet. For Indigenous people of southeast its measured in cultural survival: teaching youth, nourishing families, and connecting with our past. Secretary Rollins says she hears rural Alaskans — then it’s time to truly listen. Southeast Alaska’s prosperity is not in clear-cuts, but in stewardship.