The Tongass National Forest is the last intact temperate rainforest on Earth.
Ancient trees—some 500 years old — rise so tall they vanish into the mist.
Bear cubs learn to fish in its streams.
Salmon return to the same rivers their ancestors used for millennia.
Eagles nest in old growth that took centuries to become what it is.
Three Indigenous nations — Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian — have called it home since long before this country existed.
17 million acres of Southeast Alaska.
It stores 20% of the carbon held across ALL U.S. forests.
It’s North America’s Amazon.
It’s National Forest Week.
And they’re about to clearcut it.
Secretary Rollins rescinded its protections last June. Trump signed an executive order stripping federal land protections further in May. Bloomberg Law reports the formal full repeal lands this summer.
9 million undeveloped acres lose protection overnight. Triple the timber-suitable acreage opens up.
11 tribal governments have fought for this forest’s survival. One of them said it plainly: “You cannot separate us from the land.”
How much old growth has to disappear before people finally call it irreversible?
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