September 2 2026.
A Southeast Alaska tribe and two conservation organizations have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the U.S. Forest Service’s approval of a large timber project in the Tongass National Forest, arguing that the plan threatens old-growth forest, wildlife habitat and Native subsistence hunting.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for Alaska, challenges the South Revilla Integrated Resource Project, a 15-year project on Revillagigedo Island near Ketchikan. The plaintiffs are the Ketchikan Indian Community, the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council and the Center for Biological Diversity. They are represented by Earthjustice.
The Forest Service’s final environmental review for the project was completed earlier this year. The Environmental Protection Agency’s environmental impact statement database identifies the South Revilla project as a final Forest Service environmental impact statement issued in January 2026.
More than 5,000 acres of forest targeted.
The project area covers more than 40,000 acres, while the approved timber program would make thousands of acres of forest available for commercial logging. Local reporting indicates the plan includes more than 5,000 acres of timber harvest, primarily old-growth forest.
Earthjustice and the conservation groups say the Forest Service’s final decision authorizes approximately 60 million board feet of old-growth timber and another 23 million board feet of young-growth timber. The project also includes approximately 40 miles of new roads and reopening about 30 miles of existing roads to provide access to timber.
The scale of the project makes South Revilla one of the largest old-growth logging proposals in the Tongass in more than a decade.
Subsistence hunting at center of lawsuit.
For the Ketchikan Indian Community, the dispute extends beyond forest management and timber production.
The tribe argues that logging and associated road construction could interfere with traditional subsistence activities, particularly hunting for Sitka black-tailed deer.
The lawsuit alleges that the Forest Service failed to adequately protect deer habitat used for subsistence hunting and did not properly account for the effects of the project when evaluating its obligations under federal law.
The Tongass is particularly important to communities in Southeast Alaska because forests, watersheds and wildlife provide food and other resources that have supported Native communities for generations.
The plaintiffs contend that clearing old-growth habitat and constructing additional roads could fragment habitat and make traditional hunting areas less accessible or productive.
Several federal laws cited.
The lawsuit alleges that the Forest Service violated several federal statutes when approving the project.
Those include the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), the National Forest Management Act, the Multiple Use and Sustained Yield Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act.
The plaintiffs also challenge the agency's treatment of habitat for the Queen Charlotte goshawk, a bird associated with old-growth forest, along with potential impacts to salmon, deer, wolves, marten and black bears.
At the heart of the legal challenge is the plaintiffs' contention that the Forest Service did not adequately balance timber production with the other purposes for which the Tongass is managed, including wildlife, recreation, watershed protection and subsistence.
A long-running debate over the Tongass.
The South Revilla dispute is the latest chapter in a decades-long conflict over logging in the Tongass, the largest national forest in the United States.
The project was initially proposed years ago and was substantially similar to a proposal developed in 2020. That earlier effort was ultimately shelved after widespread opposition. The Trump administration revived the project as part of a broader effort to increase timber production on federal lands.
The Forest Service has said timber production remains one component of its multiple-use management responsibilities. Earlier federal project documents described South Revilla as a way to provide timber and support a regional timber industry while also addressing recreation, watershed and ecosystem objectives.
The renewed project has generated opposition from conservation organizations and the Ketchikan Indian Community, while the Alaska timber industry has historically argued that federal timber production is important to maintaining economic opportunities in Southeast Alaska.
History of legal challenges.
The current lawsuit also comes against a history of federal court disputes over Tongass logging and subsistence.
In 2020, a federal judge rejected another major Tongass timber and road-building project on Prince of Wales Island after finding that the Forest Service had violated the National Environmental Policy Act and ANILCA. The court concluded that the agency had not adequately evaluated the project's effects on subsistence uses.
That history gives the South Revilla case significance beyond the individual timber project. A ruling against the Forest Service could require the agency to conduct additional environmental or subsistence analysis before the project proceeds.
For the Ketchikan Indian Community, the lawsuit represents a challenge to a federal decision that the tribe says does not adequately account for the importance of the Tongass to Native communities.
For conservation groups, the case is also a test of whether large-scale old-growth logging can proceed while meeting federal requirements governing wildlife, watersheds, recreation and subsistence.
The Forest Service's decision allows work on the project to move forward, but the federal lawsuit now places the legality of that decision before the court.
The case could ultimately determine whether the South Revilla project proceeds as approved, is modified, or must undergo additional environmental and subsistence review.
