Celebrate the birthday of our largest national forest with Pat Lavin, our Alaska Policy Advisor. The Tongass National Forest is an essential old-growth ecosystem that needs protecting. Learn more at defenders.org.
Video Transcript:
Today, I’m checking out the Tongass National Forest, which you can see behind me. It’s our largest national forest. And we are checking out some of the habitat that supports some of the most amazing fish and wildlife you can find.
Because it’s such a rare ecosystem type there are species dependent on this particular old-growth forest and that includes species like the Northern Goshawk, the Alexander Archipelago Wolf, even the Sitka Blacktail Deer, a more common species.
The Tongass is known for its concentration of Bald Eagles, Tongass is known as the salmon forest, and it’s the intact watersheds that we have that support those salmon runs.
So globally, there’s a real obligation to protect the forests that remain. So at Defenders, we see a tremendous opportunity in front of us in the Tongass. We can restore the areas that have been damaged.
We can conserve what remains in terms of fish and wildlife habitat, and we can do so in a way that helps address the climate crisis.
There’s lots of ways to get involved and help us as Defenders advocate on the Tongass. You can let the Forest Service know to not pursue any program of old growth logging in the Tongass,
I would encourage you to contact your Congress person and tell them that you support the efforts we’re trying to make nationally to address climate change by doing lots of things, but including protecting our forests.
