The Washington Post

Newly released documents show the Trump administration has struck an unusual deal with the state of Alaska and the state’s timber industry, paying hundreds of thousands of dollars so logging companies can help pick which mature trees should be cut in an upcoming sale in the Tongass National Forest.

The contract has the U.S. Forest Service providing up to $300,000 annually, for up to five years, for the state to pay the Alaska Forestry Association to scope out which trees can be logged via helicopter over 14,000 acres. The trees will be part of a 1.8 million-acre sale on Prince of Wales Island in the Tongass, the world’s largest intact temperate rainforest.

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