Biggest U.S. National Forest to Open Roads, Logging, Mining (4)

The U.S. Forest Service wants to open the largest remaining U.S. coastal temperate rainforest, Alaska’s Tongass, to new logging, mining, and road-building, according to a plan announced Friday.

The agency released the final environmental impact statementfor its plan calling for the end of many protections for the Tongass National Forest, which is larger than the state of West Virginia. The move will exempt the forest from the Alaska Roadless Rule, which prohibits logging, mining and road-building on about 55% of its land.

Mining, logging and other development under the plan would be newly allowed across an area nearly twice ...