Along the southern coast of Alaska, nestled between the Pacific Ocean and Canada, the Tongass is America's largest national forest at 69,000 km2. However, 40% of the Tongass area is swamp, ice, rock and non-forested area, with only about 40,000 km2is a forest, home to many rare and endangered species of flora and fauna.
National Geographic describes the Tongass as an exceptionally rich ecosystem, containing more biomass per unit area than any other forest, including tropical forests.
Sequestering about 8% of the total carbon absorbed by US forests each year, the Tongass National Forest is one of the most important remaining temperate rainforests in the world, and the world's largest intact coastal temperate rainforest. Many of the trees in the forest are estimated to be more than 800-1,000 years old.
The Tongass is also home to over 75,000 indigenous people from 31 different ethnic groups. The forest is named after the Tongass group of the Tlingit tribe.
