"Coalitions Sue Forest Service To Block Alaska Old-Growth Timber Sale"

"SEATTLE — Two coalitions of environmental groups have filed three separate suits against the U.S. Forest Service, hoping to stop what the organizations say is the largest sale of old-growth timber in nearly a generation in America's largest national forest.

Last week the Forest Service gave the final go-ahead for the so-called Big Thorne timber sale in Alaska's Tongass National Forest, a scenic expanse the size of Delaware studded with 1,000-year-old trees. Under the terms of the multiyear sale, about 6,000 acres of old-growth trees would be harvested.

The Southeast Alaska Conservation Council is part of the coalition that filed suit Friday. The groups argue that the proposed Big Thorne timber sale "is taking a step backward toward the logging regime of old, where there is a high volume of old-growth forest slated to be cut," council spokesman Daven Hafey said."

Maria L. La Ganga reports for the Los Angeles Times August 28, 2014.