Tongass National Forest Area Comparison with States (Graph/Chart Available)
- The 16.8 million-acre Tongass National Forest is larger than 10 states and the District of Columbia
- The Tongass National Forest is about the same size as West Virginia and nearly as large as South Carolina and Maine
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Tongass National Forest Distance Comparisons (Figure Available)
- The Tongass National Forest extends 500 miles from Dixon Entrance in the south to Yakutat in the north
- It is approximately 500 miles from:
- New York City to the State of South Carolina
- Pittsburgh to Boston
- Washington D.C. to Montreal
- San Francisco to Portland
- San Francisco to Mexico
- Sacramento to Salt Lake City
- Denver to Omaha
- Houston to Memphis
- Chicago to Chattanooga
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Tongass National Forest Comparison with National Forests in other States
- The Tongass National Forest is nearly 2 million acres larger than all of the National Forests combined in the State of Colorado
- The Tongass National Forest is nearly 1 million acres larger than all of the National Forests combined in the State of Oregon
- The Tongass National Forest is approximately the same size as all of the National Forests combined in the State of Montana
- The Tongass National Forest is more than 90 percent roadless; all of the National Forests combined in the State of Oregon are about 30 percent roadless
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Tongass National Forest Land Use Zones (Graph/Chart Available)
- The Tongass National Forest has 19 designated Wildernesses that make up 5.8 million acres (34 percent of the Forest) and two designated Nonwilderness National Monuments (1 percent)
- Approximately 7.3 million acres of the Tongass National Forest (43 percent) are zoned non-development
- Approximately 3.6 million acres of the Tongass National Forest (22 percent) are zoned to allow development
- Actual timber harvest can occur on about 0.7 million acres (4 percent) of the Tongass National Forest
- The 109 inventoried roadless areas on the Tongass National Forest include approximately 9.6 million acres (57 percent of the Forest)
- Actual timber harvest can occur on about 0.3 million acres of the 9.6 million acres of inventoried roadless lands
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Tongass National Forest Old Growth (Graph/Chart Available)
- The 16.8 million-acre Tongass National Forest includes 9.4 million acres of old-growth forest, of which about 5 million acres contain commercial-sized trees
- Approximately 0.4 million acres, or 7 percent, of the total commercial-sized old-growth forest on the Tongass National Forest has been harvested since 1954
- Nearly 90 percent (4.5 million acres) of the 5 million acres of commercial-sized old-growth forest is protected under the current Forest Plan
- Under the current Forest Plan, a total of 0.5 million acres, or approximately 10 percent, of the remaining commercial-sized old-growth could be harvested over the next 120 years
- Under the current Forest Plan, 83 percent of the commercial-sized old-growth identified in 1954 would remain in 2120
- More than 3 million acres of commercial-sized old-growth forest are located below an elevation of 800 feet above mean sea level
- 1.7 million acres of commercial-sized old-growth is currently located in designated wilderness
- More than 0.5 million acres of high volume coarse canopy old-growth
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Southeast Alaska Communities
- There are approximately 73,000 residents in Southeast Alaska
- There are 32 communities in Alaska with populations ranging from about 21 in Meyers Chuck to approximately 30,700 in Juneau
- Forty-two percent of the region’s population lives in Juneau
- About 632,000 cruise ship passengers visited Juneau in 2000
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