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At 17 million acres (69,000 km²), the Tongass National Forest in southeastern Alaska is the largest national forest in the United States. It is a northern temperate rain forest, remote enough to be the home of many species of flora and fauna considered endangered or rare elsewhere. Created in 1907 by President Theodore Roosevelt, it encompasses islands of the Alexander Archipelago, fjords, glaciers, and peaks of the Coastal Range mountains.
History
The Alexander Archipelago Forest Reserve was established by Theodore Roosevelt in a presidential proclamation of August 20, 1902.* Another presidential proclamation made by Roosevelt, on September 10, 1907, created the Tongass National Forest. On July 1, 1908, the two forests were joined, with the combined forest area encompassing most of southeast Alaska.
Further presidential proclamations of February 16, 1909 (in the last months of the Roosevelt administration) and June 10, 1925 (by Calvin Coolidge) expanded the Tongass National Forest.*
An early supervisor of the forest was William Alexander Langille.*
Description
The Tongass National Forest is home to about 75,000 people who are dependent on the national forest for their livelihoods. Several Alaska Native tribes live throughout Southeast Alaska, such as the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian. 31 communities are located within the forest; the largest is Juneau, the state capital, with a population of 31,000. The forest is named for the Tongass clan of the Tlingit people, who inhabited the southernmost areas of the Alaska panhandle near what is now Ketchikan.
Across the thousands of islands within the forest, are unique and protected features seldom found anywhere else in North America. Bald eagles, five species of salmon and brown and black bears abound throughout the forest. The health of the forest is evident in that there are no threatened or endangered species to be found in the forest or the streams.
The Tongass National Forest was included in the Roadless Initiative passed on January 5, 2001, during the last days of the Bill Clinton administration, which prevents the construction of new roads in currently unroaded areas of United States national forests. However, several governors of western states soon joined with industry to overturn the roadless policy. The administration of George W. Bush has declined to defend the policy in the courts and the U.S. Forest Service has largely exempted the Tongass from the roadless protections.*
External links
- U.S. Forest Service - Tongass National Forest
- Tongass National Forest page from Alaska Wilderness League site
- Tongass National Forest update from Alaska Wilderness League site
"Tongass National Forest"