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The unsurpassed scenery of Alaska's Tongass Nation Forest covers 17 million acres and supports thriving populations of grizzly bears, bald eagles, five species of salmon, and deer. In addition, it is the home of the Tlingit Indians and many small communities of more recent arrivals.

The Tongass has been the scene of fierce environmental battles since the 1950s, when the Forest Service decided to establish logging as the dominant economic activity. The long-term contracts it sold to the timber industry would have resulted in the clearcutting of most of this wilderness paradise. For decades Earthjustice has protected the Tongass, most recently through our work defending the Roadless Area Conservation Policy, which protects pristine national forest lands from road building.

During the summer of 2002, the Forest Service recommended NOT protecting over 9 million acres of this precious, old-growth forest as federally designated wilderness. The public responded with almost 100,000 comments rejecting the Forest Service recommendation and recommending greater protection for the Tongass.