More than three million acres in the TongassNational Forest in Alaska would be open to logging under a federal plan that supporters believe will revive the state’s struggling timber industry. Environmentalists, however, fear that the proposal will devastate the forest. The Bush administration’s new management plan for the forest, the largest in the country at nearly 17 million acres, would leave about 3.4 million acres open to logging, road building and other development, including about 2.4 million acres that are now remote and roadless. The Alaska Forest Association, an industry group, said the plan fell short of industry’s needs. If necessary, the group said, it will challenge the plan in court — a threat also made by environmentalists.
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