The U.S. Forest Service has withdrawn findings that the proposed timber sale on Mitkof Island near Petersburg has no significant environmental impact.
The Ketchikan Daily News reports that the federal agency pulled its decision notice earlier this month. The sale was projected to provide roughly 28.5 million board feet on more than 4,000 acres on Tongass National Forest land.
Forest Service spokesman Kent Cummins said in an email Wednesday that the withdrawal allows the agency to take another look at the proposed sale on Mitkof Island and consider “improving the project’s scope.”
Five environmental organizations filed a lawsuit against the Forest Service in May to halt the timber sale, arguing that the sale would negatively impact subsistence hunters, deer and other wildlife.
