Logging in Alaska - an Environmental Catastrophe?

I was alerted to this article in The Guardian by Bryn’s excellent AS Economics blog. The report says that

‘The US government has announced plans to open more than 3m acres (about 5,000 square miles) of Alaskan wilderness to logging, mining and road building, angering environmental campaigners who say it will devastate the region. Supporters say the plan for the Tongass National Forest, a refuge for grizzly and black bears, wolves, eagles and wild salmon, will revive the state’s timber industry.’

This type of decision focuses squarely on the role that might be played by undertaking a proper cost-benefit analysis of the impact of the project. But politics (and in particular the pleading of special interest groups) can often get in the way of a focused and objective assessment of the present and future costs and benefits. There is a related article here in the LA Times which reports that logging is only 1 per cent of the economy of the region.