Temperate Rainforest
There’s a profound interaction between Pacific Ocean weather fronts and the high mountains of the Coastal Range. The result is the world’s largest temperate rain forest—most of which is managed as the Tongass National Forest. The Tongass is known as “the crown jewell” of the nation’s forests for it’s size, bio-diversity, and old growth cedars, spruce and hemlock trees. The forest supports countless species of birds, mammals and native runs of salmon, not to mention human tourism, subsistence and timber harvesting.
Forest Ecosystem
The old-growth temperate rainforest of the Tongass holds the highest biomass of any forest ecosystem in the world—more even than tropical rainforests. Fascinating new research points to intricate networks of fungi in the forest floor allowing trees to both support and communicate with one-another. As we humans awaken to the importance of carbon sequestration, the Tongass is a huge and important global asset. To explore this temperate rain forest is to open one’s self to the wonder and abundance of life on Planet Earth.
Values
The term “ecosystem services” is often used by policy and planning professionals. It’s an anthropocentric term that reflects a cultural bias that the forest is here to provide for humans. And yes, the temperate rainforests of Alaska support a timber industry, a salmon industry, a tourism industry. The forests provide indigenous and locals an important means of subsistence, recreation, supporting the arts, and providing a home for forest creatures—from “charismatic megafauna” to dragonflies. “Ecological Services”, sure. Let’s make sure we manage the forest for all species that depend on an intact ecosystem.
Controversy
From the 50s through to the 80s, timber harvest in the Tongass has been conducted through high volume clear cutting, driven by 50 year contracts to supply pulp mills in Ketchikan and Sitka. During this time, the USFS was obligated to subsidize the roading of the Tongass and other expenses. “Deficit sale” is a euphemism for cutting the forest at a loss—tax payers picking up the tab. In 1990, Congress passed the Tongass Timber Reform Act, addressing many of the most egregious environmental and economic practices of the pulp mill era. Today, the Administration is directing the USFS to ramp up clear cutting, eliminating the Roadless Rule, exporting logs in the round to Asia. The impacts to tourism, forest habitat, local and native subsistence uses will be enormous. A must see documentary: Last Stands, “Understory”.