One of the Rarest and Richest
Forests on Earth

Many people know of the extraordinary biological diversity of tropical rainforests. Lesser known is the importance of coastal temperate rainforests such as Alaska's Tongass. For one, the Tongass is a salmon forest: its streams are vital salmon spawning habitat. Temperate rainforests accumulate and store more organic matter than any other forest type. Globally rare, there is only one intact acre of temperate rainforest for every 36 acres of tropical rainforest. Temperate rainforest used to be located on almost every continent; however, today only 50 percent, or 75 million acres, of these forests remain worldwide. Half of those are found in a narrow band between Alaska and northern California.

The largest intact portion of these forests remaining in the world spans Southeast Alaska and British Columbia. Brown bear, black bear, wolves, bald eagles and wild salmon flourish here. Whales, sea lions, seals and other marine mammals thrive in waters nourished by one of the largest estuarine systems on Earth. The Conservancy’s Southeast Alaska team has:

Completed a comprehensive ecological assessment of Southeast Alaska, in partnership with Audubon Alaska. The report represents over five years of effort in data compilation, analysis and review, and it identifies the most important areas for fish and wildlife in the region. Read the recommendations.
Convened the Tongass Futures Roundtable. In a region known nationally for bitter and polarized debate over forest resources, the Conservancy and the National Forest Foundation brought together an unprecedented gathering of Tongass stakeholders, including representatives of the Forest Service and other state and federal agencies, conservation organizations, communities, commercial fisheries, tourism, tribal and Native corporate interests.
Launched stream restoration and sustainable forestry projects on Prince of Wales Island. Prince of Wales, the third largest island in the U.S., boasts more productive forest lands, more rare, large-tree forests, and more salmon steams than any of southeast Alaska’s 22 biological provinces.
Video-mapped an additional 7,500 miles of southeast Alaska’s shoreline. Over the last 3 years, the Conservancy and partners have taken aerial imagery of roughly 13,500 miles of shoreline, using the ShoreZone mapping system, and plan an additional 3,883 miles this summer. Imagery analysis assists land and resource managers in conservation planning, habitat research, permitting, and spill response planning.