Feds settle with environmentalists over Tongass lawsuit costs Posted by Jacob Resneck, CoastAlaska | Apr 8, 2021 Clearcuts and old-growth forests are part of the view on Prince of Wales Island. (Nick Bonzey, Flick Creative Commons) Industry groups and the federal agency argued that the project was key to keeping Southeast’s last mills running over the next decade. But a federal judge agreed with the plaintiffs who argued that the federal agency didn’t follow the law when it approved the timber sales. That’s because it hadn’t provided site-specific information over areas that could be logged. The Department of Justice agreed this week to pay the funds into an account held by Earthjustice’s Alaska office. That’s the environmental law firm that litigated the case. Lead attorney Tom Waldo says the actual costs were about $301,000 in fees and other costs. But the parties settled to avoid bringing the matter back to the judge.