Tongass National Forest - Where?

It's OK, you didn't sleep through geography class. Tongass National Forest is not near Cincinnati - it's not even in Ohio. It's way up north in that U.S. state called ALASKA.

So why are we writing about it on an Ohio blog? Good question. But perhaps one that should be put to Rep. Steve Chabot, a Westwood Republican who fought yesterday - as he did last year - to prohibit taxpayer dollars from being used to pay for logging roads in this forest.

Say what? Yes, an Ohio congressman really does care about this forest in Alaska. So does New Jersey Rep. Robert Andrews, a Democrat who worked with Chabot to successfully offer the amendment to the Interior and Environment spending bill, which passed 283 to 145.

“Eliminating this wasteful corporate subsidy is a victory for American taxpayers,” Chabot said. “The Tongass timber program hemorrhages tax dollars – costing almost a billion dollars since 1982. Ending this federal subsidy program is a step toward reining in excessive government spending and returning fiscal discipline to Washington.”

Chabot says there is no need for more logging roads and that the vast majority of Tongass timber contracts - 90 to 95 percent - are unprofitable. He says half go unsold. Basically, he says the only reason the Forest Service builds these roads is to provide jobs to locals.

The Tongass Amendment has been endorsed by a number of pro-taxpayer, environmental, and sportsmen groups, including: Council for Citizens Against Government Waste; National Taxpayers Union; Wildlife Forever; Northern Sportsmen Network; National Wildlife Federation; Sierra Club; U.S. PIRG; and the Alaska Coalition.

“Americans want their hard-earned dollars spent wisely," said said Franz Matzner, forest advocate for the Natural Resources Defense Council, which supported the amendment. "By paying to have our wildlands destroyed, the federal government has been as bad a steward of the public purse as it has been of public lands."

Matzner says voters want forests like Tongass "preserved for their use, not to create a profit margin for dinosaur industries that can’t make it on their own.”

Established in 1907 by President Theodore Roosevelt, the Tongass is the nation’s largest forest – about the size of West Virginia.

Now, you should know where that state is.