Tongass National Forest

Frequently Asked Questions

Fact Sheets

Southeast Alaska

• How do people get to the communities of Southeast Alaska?
• Does it rain a lot in Southeast Alaska?
• What is the elevation?
• Why is the state capital in Juneau, a town without a road?
• Is all of Southeast Alaska within the Tongass?
• How many glaciers are there in Alaska?
• How many miles of coastline are there in Alaska?
• How many islands are there in Southeast Alaska?
• Why do you pay so much for gasoline in Southeast Alaska?
• Why is the ferry late so often?
• How do you pronounce Tsimshian, Tlingit and Haida?
• I am going to Canada after visiting in Southeast Alaska. Should I change my currency before I go?

Enjoying the Tongass

• Where can I go fishing and what kind of fish can I catch?
• Do people need a permit to hike and camp in the Tongass?
• Where are the Forest Service recreation cabins and how can I rent one?
• Is it safe to watch bears at Pack Creek?
• Where else can I see bears in the Tongass?

Resources

• How does wilderness differ from a national park?
• Why are Misty Fiords and Admiralty Island National Monuments and not national parks?
• Why do glaciers last through the summer?
• Why are glaciers blue?
• How old are the trees in Tongass National Forest?
• Why doesn't the Tongass look like a rainforest?
• Why are there so many standing dead trees in the forest?
• How much of the Tongass National Forest is scheduled for logging?
• Why is the Forest Service allowing timber harvest in the Tongass?
• Can an individual go into the forest and pick berries, mushrooms, and collect other herbal plants?

Forest Management

• Does the Forest Service subsidize the timber industry in SE Alaska?
• Can the FS give me facts that show a profit for sales over the past 10 years? What was the profit to the government?
• Is the Tongass NF the most expensive national forest on which to conduct logging practices?
• On average, what is the cost to log on the Tongass?
• Isn't the Forest Service wasting money building roads to nowhere?
• Why does the FS continue to build roads when it has a backlog on maintenance?
• Is the backlog maintenance road cost at $100 million?
• Are all sales on the Tongass clear cut sales?
• How many new sales will be in roadless and how many board feet will come out of it?
• Did taxpayers spend $35 million subsidizing the timber industry on the Tongass last year (2003)? If not, what was the cost to taxpayers?
• Haven't 70% of the biggest trees and best timber stands already been logged?
• Isn't the part of the Tongass National Forest where logging isn't allowed all rocks, ice and muskeg?
• Won't the timber harvests scheduled by the Forest Service "rip the biological heart" out of the Tongass?
• Isn't logging harmful to fish and wildlife habitat?
• Do Forest Service culberts keep fish from swimming upstream to spawn?
• Aren't most of the trees cut in the Tongass shipped to Asia unprocessed?
• Why does the Forest Service keep selling timber when there isn't any real demand for the wood?
• Doesn't logging always harm tourism and subsistence opportunities?
• Isn't the Forest Service giving the "crown jewel" of national forests to "timber barons" or "giant multi-national corporations"?

USDA Forest Service - Tongass National Forest
Last Modified: November 25, 2007