Alaska timbermen sue to stop the U.S. Forest Service from unilaterally ending congressionally required sale of timber

Anchorage, AK; March 6, 2025: Today, the Alaska Forest Association and two of its members, Viking Lumber and Alcan Timber, filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service, seeking to save the timber industry in southeast Alaska by forcing the agency to comply with the mandatory sale of timber required by the Tongass Timber Reform Act.  

“Federal law requires the Forest Service to sell enough timber every year to meet market demand,” said Frank Garrison, attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation. “By refusing to meet that requirement, failing to follow through on its own 2016 Management Plan, and issuing informal guidance rather than follow formal federal rulemaking procedures, the agency has violated federal law three times over.”  

In 2016, the U.S. Forest Service issued an official Management Plan transitioning from selling old-growth timber to younger trees. But the plan promised a 10-year period to make the transition, reducing the amount of old lumber it sold each year while increasing the amount of younger trees sold. But the Service never followed through. Once the Management Plan was issued, the agency stopped selling old lumber entirely and never sold as much young timber as the plan required. Then in 2021, the agency outright ended the sale of old timber altogether—through a guidance document—while still not selling enough young timber to keep the industry afloat.  

Timber harvested in Alaska is used to make everything from neighborhood fences to Steinway pianos. At one point, more than 4,000 people worked fulfilling jobs in the Alaska timber industry. The work not only enriched their and their families’ lives but was the lifeblood of their communities. Yet, as part of a broader assault on the use of natural resources, the FWS’s broken promise devastated the industry—today, the industry only sustains about 300 jobs—and the families and communities that depend on it.  

Federal agencies cannot decide by fiat to ignore the law and make up their own rules that harm the livelihoods of businesses and their employees. That’s why the Alaska Forest Association and its members are fighting back, to force the U.S. Forest Service to comply with federal law and protect this vital industry and the people and communities who depend on it.  

The case is Alaska Forest Association v. Rollins, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska.