The Alan Stein papers documents the work the Point Baker and Salmon Bay Protective Associations did to protest clearcut logging and lobby for buffer strip legislation in the Tongass National Forest on Prince of Wales Island in Alaska. The collection contains materials related to two significant lawsuits pertaining to clearcutting: the Point Baker Association’s logging lawsuit (Zieske v. Butz), and the Salmon Bay Protective Association’s lawsuit and Environmental Impact Study Appeal (Stein v. Barton). The collection also includes the Point Baker Association’s forestry lobby legislation file for the National Forest Management Act of 1976 and the Tongass Timber Reform Act of 1990. These papers were collected by one of the lead plantiffs, Alan Stein. According to Stein, these records document local Alaskan bush communities’ efforts to protect salmon streams essential to their economy and way of life.

Alan Stein, a fisherman, homesteader, and activist in Port Protection, Alaska, founded the Point Baker Association in 1973. This group of local citizens joined to protest clearcut logging near Point Baker. The Association initiated a federal lawsuit in December 1975, Zieske v Butz, which stopped clearcut logging near Point Baker and threatened all logging on the West Coast. Zieske (1975) spurred Congress into Passing the NFMA (National Forest Management Act, 1976) and Stein (1990) spurred Congress to pass the buffer strip provisions contained in the TTRA (1991). In both cases, Stein lobbied Congress extensively. In 1989, Stein organized a group of commercial fisherman into the Salmon Bay Protective Association (SBPA). They challenged the U.S. Forest Service Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision as they affected commercial clearcut logging of trees along approximately 1,800 salmon streams in the Tongass National Forest, as well as plans to clearcut in the watershed of Prince of Wales Island, Salmon Bay. The SBPA won a U.S. District Court order prohibiting logging along Class I and II streams and succeeded in persuading the U.S. Congress and Alaska State legislature to pass 100 foot buffer strip streams in the Tongass National Forest.

4.6 Linear Feet (9 boxes)

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Collection is open for research.