You're listening to shortwave from NPR.

Maddie's to fly here with our very own shortwave reporter Emily Kwong. Hey you.

Hey Maddie, so remember this time last year I took you and our listeners to the Tongue

National Forest.

Hmm, yes, the largest intact temperate rainforest in the world in Southeast Alaska.

You taught me that. Your former home. Well done. Yes, I worked at a member station there.

And for years I just ran around in rubber rain boots beneath skies of bald eagles and ravens.

Hoping to spot a whale, hoping not to run into a bear. Just just like DC, just like DC.

But the best part of the Tongue is Maddie are the trees, big dense forests that have earned

this part of Alaska a lot of attention. Right. And last time we talked about how this forest

is the focal point of eight decades long debate about logging access and road construction there.

And today we have an update on the story. That's right. So the Trump administration,

specifically the forest service under the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has officially

decided to make the Tongue's exempt from a public lands rule that's been in place on and off since

2001 called the roadless rule. And this rule limits road building and industrial activity in this

rainforest. And this could have implications far beyond Alaska, right. Absolutely. Yeah, the trees

of the Tongues have been storing carbon for centuries. But with the removal of the roadless rule,

9 million acres previously protected could be open to potential development.

On today's show, we're going to revisit that episode from last year about the trees of the Tongues.

And then, hear the latest from a reporter on the ground about where this rule change and the future

of the Tongues stands under a Biden presidency. You're listening to shortwave from NPR.

Okay, so we're talking about the Tongues National Forest. Where do you want to start?

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