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Totem Pole a ‘Thank You’ for Roadless Rule Efforts
 As a “thank you” for efforts by NAHB on behalf of residents of the small towns and villages in the Tongass and Chugach National Forests, the Alaska State Home Building Association presented a totem pole to the association on April 12.
Standing in the National Housing Center in Washington, D.C., where it can be viewed by the public, the eight-foot totem pole was presented to NAHB by carver Dennis Mann.
Designed by master carver and Chilkoot Tlingit Nathan Jackson, the pole is a Crest Pole representing the powerful Killer Whale and Eagle Clan.
“I hope that this totem will be a symbol to every community and region in the United States that NAHB is there to help, and the dues we send are an investment that pays big returns to us all,” said Andy Rauwolf, the 2004 president of the Southern Southeast Alaska Building Industry Association in Ketchikan.
Rauwolf wrote a resolution in opposition to the Clinton Administration’s “Roadless Rule,” which banned any further road building in the national forests in the U.S. Rauwolf brought the resolution before the NAHB Board of Directors, which unanimously adopted it as policy. Following a meeting between NAHB and the assistant secretary of agriculture last fall, the secretary of agriculture announced that the Tongass and Chugach National Forests were exempt from the rule.
“The battle still rages on,” Rauwolf said, “but NAHB continues to protect our rights.”
Rauwolf said that Southeast Alaska was hit hardest by the rule “because our towns and villages are completely surrounded by national forest lands with very little state or privately owned land to fall back on. For this reason, the economies of these communities are dependent to a large extent on the revenues generated from natural resources harvested from private land.”
Although only 4% of the entire Tongass National Forest — which is larger than the state of West Virginia — was designated for timber harvesting and on a 100-year rotational cycle, Rauwolf said, almost every timber sale by the U.S. Forest Service was held up by lawsuits brought by environmental groups.
Among the hardships resulting from the curtailment of logging in just one year, schools in Ketchikan lost 400 students as families depending on jobs in timber-related industries pulled up stakes and moved elsewhere. As residents lost their health insurance and couldn’t afford to renew their policies, the small Ketchikan General Hospital saw its bad debts and charity care loads more than double — from $1.2 million to $2.5 million. And housing production in the area declined from 34 new starts to only three.
“I doubt that environmental groups ever consider these things,” said Rauwolf, “but from what I’ve seen they probably couldn't care less. I have no doubt that lives were lost as an indirect result of these irresponsible actions.”
On hand for the totem pole dedication ceremony in Washington were NAHB President Dave Wilson and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).
For more information on the Roadless Rule, e-mail Michael Mittelholzer, or call him at 800-368-5242 x8660.
Photo by Herman Farrer
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