- Location
- Alaska
- Current protection
- Tongass National Forest (U.S. Forest Service), including the Misty Fjords and Admiralty Island national monuments
- Status
- Advocacy by the New National Parks campaign; no bill
- Tier
- Tier 1 · National Park
- In the book
- Not featured in Undiscovered America
Why should it be a National Park?
The Tongass covers most of Southeast Alaska, a coast of mountains, glaciers, and thousands of islands wrapped in the largest intact temperate rainforest on Earth. Its old-growth spruce and hemlock hold more carbon than almost any forest in the country, and its rivers run with salmon that feed brown bears, eagles, and the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian communities who have lived here for thousands of years.
It is the country's largest national forest, and much of it has been logged for pulp and timber. A Tongass National Park would put the rainforest itself first, and it would be one of the great parks of the world.
The history of National Park Campaigns
The Tongass has been a national forest since 1907, and the fight over it has mostly been about logging roads and old-growth timber sales. In 2021 the New National Parks campaign, run by RESTORE: The North Woods, proposed redesignating the forest as a 16.8-million-acre Tongass National Park that would end industrial logging for good.
- Distinct National Park attempts
- 1 (2021 New National Parks campaign proposal)
- Other designation attempts
- 2 (1978 national monuments; wilderness areas)
Sources
- Michael Kellett, "A Modest Proposal: We Need More National Parks," Sierra (August 17, 2021)
- RESTORE: The North Woods, "Create National Parks" (restore.org, 2026)
- 1907
President Theodore Roosevelt proclaims the Tongass National Forest.
- 1978
President Carter proclaims Misty Fjords and Admiralty Island national monuments inside the forest.
- August 17, 2021
Michael Kellett of RESTORE: The North Woods proposes a 16.8-million-acre Tongass National Park in Sierra, as part of the New National Parks campaign.