editor’s note: story four in our stories of alaska series focuses on the timber industry — one part of the resource-rich puzzle that is alaska — and the yearslong debate over the “roadless area conservation” rule, put in place by the usda in 2001, which disallows construction of any new road system in national forest land and effectively makes it impossible for companies to extract new resources that aren’t already accessible. click the story below to read more about the arguments for and against exemptions to the rule for alaska.