#tongass

Joel Jackson, the president of the Organized Village of Kake, a tribal community, has lived within the Tongass National Forest in Alaska his entire life. His community relies on the land for hunting deer and fishing salmon that swim in streams kept cold by the old-growth forest.

But the 66-year-old worried about damage to that land - the largest national forest in the US - after former President Donald Trump rescinded a measure blocking logging and road-building on nine million acres of land in the Tongass in 2020.

"The forest is key to our survival as a people, to our way of life … for thousands of years," Mr Jackson said.

Last week marked a long-awaited victory for Mr Jackson and other tribes and environmental groups who petitioned the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to reinstate the protections for the forest.

Beaver Mask

I just recently visited the Tongass National Forest in Alaska. This photo was taken in a section of the national forest near Juneau. The dominant trees here are western hemlock and sitka spruce. Spanning most of Southeast Alaska, the Tongass is the largest national forest in the U.S. and is a fine example of Pacific temperate rainforest.

TAKE ACTION:  Protect the Ancient Trees of the Tongass National Forest

For nearly two decades, the federal Roadless Rule has prohibited road-building and logging on nearly 60 million acres of the country's most pristine national forest land.

The Roadless Rule currently protects more than half of the nearly 17-million-acre Tongass National Forest in Alaska. Part of the largest remaining temperate rainforest on Earth, the Tongass hosts the Prince of Wales Spruce Grouse and the Queen Charlotte Goshawk, a subspecies of Northern Goshawk that hunts and breeds exclusively in old-growth forests.

These wild areas are in jeopardy: the U.S. Forest Service has proposed a new rule that would open these old-growth woods in Alaska to clearcutting.

Sky of Fire