The biggest national forest in the United States is not defined by endless inland woodland but by a remarkable mix of rainforest, glaciers, islands and ocean channels. Spread across Southeast Alaska, Tongass National Forest covers around 17 million acres, making it larger than the state of West Virginia. It also contains the world's largest remaining intact temperate rainforest, where towering conifers, wetlands and salmon-filled rivers exist alongside remote coastal communities. Rather than being a single block of forest, Tongass is a landscape shaped by water as much as trees, with thousands of islands and deep fjords forming one of North America's most distinctive ecosystems. Its size alone is impressive, yet the way its forests, wildlife and coastline function together makes it unlike anywhere else in the US.
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