The Tongass National Forest
Photo by: Colin Arisman
acres — one of the world's largest remaining temperate rainforests!
Species of Wild Animals call the Tongass home
Michele Cornelius
Howie Garber
Imagine walking through a thick fog into a forest with huge stands of 800-year-old trees towering above you, a soft, spongy ground carpeted with green moss and lichen beneath you, and a sparkling shoreline in the distance with breaching humpback whales and rookeries of sea lions.
Something so grand and spectacular sounds imaginary, but it’s real. This is the Tongass National Forest, a world abundant with the sounds and sights of wildlife, deep fjords, icefields, glaciers, and snowcapped mountains.
At roughly 17 million acres — spanning over 80% of Southeast Alaska and stretching 500 miles from north to south — it’s the country’s largest National Forest and one of the last intact old-growth temperate rainforests in the world.
The Tongass is the still-thumping heart of a rainforest that once stretched uninterrupted from Northern California through Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska. Old-growth temperate rainforests hold more biomass (living stuff) per acre than any other type of ecosystem on the planet, including tropical jungles. The Tongass is recognized as a globally significant carbon storage reserve.
The Tongass supports all life here in Southeast Alaska and is the traditional homelands of the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian peoples who use the forest for traditional hunting, fishing, gathering, and arts. It’s called a “living forest” because it’s an economic engine for Southeast Alaskans.
What’s Happening to the Tongass?
Historically speaking, the U.S. Forest Service has always envisioned the Tongass as a pulpwood farm, putting profits over the people who live here. USFS Chief Gifford Pinchot told Congress in 1908, for instance, that wise forest management “must be brought about by the axe.”
From the 1950s to present day, more than 1 million acres of the Tongass have been clearcut, and roughly half of the forest’s large old-growth trees were logged in the last century. With time, many Southeast Alaska residents began to recognize the danger that industrial-scale logging posed to virtually every aspect of their lives by the destruction of the Tongass.
To this day, multiple uses — including industrial-scale logging — are allowed on national forest lands. In fact, the Tongass is the last National Forest to allow large-scale clearcut logging of ancient old-growth trees, and the government is allowed to continue this outdated practice. In 2015, for example, over 6,000 acres were logged as part of the Big Thorne sale on Prince of Wales Island.
At the taxpayer’s expense
To make matters worse, this is done at a loss to the U.S. taxpayer. A recent study done by the independent, nonpartisan group Taxpayers for Common Sense found that the Forest Service lost $16.1 million on Tongass timber sales in fiscal year 2019, and $1.7 billion over the past four decades. Despite all the tax dollars spent propping up the modern day timber industry, it now contributes less than 1% to Southeast Alaska’s regional economy.
Tongass news
Comment: Tell the USDA to strengthen the National Old Growth Amendment
UPDATE: The comment period has closed! Thanks to everyone who commented! The National Old Growth Amendment was introduced by the USDA as “a first-of-its-kind proposal to amend all 128 forest land management plans” to conserve old-growth forest conditions in response...
Big news for big trees? What does NOGA mean for the Tongass?
Big news for big trees? The Biden Administration has released draft plans for old-growth protections in our National Forests. What does that mean for the Tongass? Well, it’ll take some deep reading to know for sure, but you know we’re up to the challenge. Meanwhile,...
Press Release: Alaska Native Tribes, Southeast Alaska Businesses and Forest Advocates Defend Tongass National Forest’s Roadless Rule
Legal intervention seeks to retain forest protections that support Tribes, communities, and sustainable local economies Earthjustice A broad coalition of Alaska Native Tribes, commercial fishers, small tourism businesses, conservation groups — including SEACC — and...
A New Tongass Forest Plan
The Tongass Forest Plan, also called the Tongass Land and Resource Management Plan, guides natural resource management activities and establishes management direction for the Tongass National Forest. It shapes every decision the US Forest Service makes for the Tongass, which is why the revision process is so important — and it’s happening now.
The current forest plan was developed in 1997 and while it’s been amended through the years, it hasn’t been fully reviewed and revised. It’s time for a new forest plan to shape the future of the largest national forest.
Why is it important?
The Tongass is the largest national forest, covering 17 million acres, and how it’s managed has an impact on how we live, work and play. A lot has changed since the last plan was developed and we have new priorities and new science.
What’s in a forest plan?
The revised forest plan will cover:
- Environmental and ecosystem health
- Air, water and soil quality
- Social, cultural and economic factors
- System drivers like disturbance processes, natural succession and climate change
- Infrastructure, including recreational facilities and settings and transportation corridors
- Existing and potentially designated areas including Wilderness and Wild and Scenic Rivers
Opportunities for engagement
There will be formal public comment opportunities throughout the assessment phase, but the engagement strategy for the forest plan revision has also included webinars, community workshops and a survey, and Forest Service staff plan to engage with federal and state agencies, Tribes, local governments, communities, private landowners and other interested individuals and groups, according to plan revision documents. We promise to keep you informed of opportunities if you sign up for email alerts!
Keeping the Tongass Roadless
The national Roadless Rule grants protections from development for over 50 million acres of roadless areas across the country, including 9.3 million acres of the Tongass.
It was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 2001 and was met with overwhelming public support. In the years since, the Roadless Rule has faced pushback from Alaska and national politicians but SEACC and Southeast Alaskans have fought for these protections.
In 2020, at the recommendation of the US Forest Service, former President Trump removed Roadless Rule protections from the Tongass. SEACC fought hard on behalf of Southeast Alaskans and, in January of 2023, the Roadless Rule was reinstated by the Biden Administration.
Still, the fight isn’t over — and we won’t give up.
The Tongass Needs Our Help.
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We’ll let you know about opportunities to speak up for the Tongass. It’s always helpful to drop a line to your U.S. Senators and Representative(s) telling them that you live, work, and play in the Tongass and would like it to be managed for fish, wildlife, and the benefit of our communities.