Trees Older Than America: a Primeval Alaskan Forest Is At Risk in the Trump Era

At south-east Alaska’s last industrial-scale sawmill, wheel loaders stack debarked logs two storeys high on the frozen ground. A bumper sticker on a battered Ford in the parking lot reads “Cut Kill Dig Drill”, a mantra that many in the 49th state appreciate repeating.

Viking Lumber Company employs 34 people and sustains itself primarily on old-growth trees harvested from the Tongass, the largest intact temperate rainforest in the world. Many of them have been around longer than the United States – some for 1,000 years.

Photo by Rafe Hanson

Read the full story:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/mar/22/alaska-tongass-forest-at-risk-logging-trump