The Southeastern panhandle of Alaska is a uniquely remote, stunning place — a network of more than 1,000 islands, jagged coastlines, and dense, mist-shrouded forests that have been home to thriving human, animal, and plant communities for millennia. Nearly 80% of this wild region, 16.8 million acres, is the Tongass National Forest, the largest primarily intact temperate rainforest in the world.

Tongass National Forest in southeast Alaska stands ancient and giant. Encompassing 17 million acres that stretch across thousands of islands and cliffs, including rivers surging with salmon, the Tongass is the nation’s largest national forest and the world’s largest remaining temperate rainforest. Its lands provide habitat to hundreds of species, including brown bears, whales, wolves, and bald eagles. And for the people of southeast Alaska, the Tongass provides food, recreation opportunities, and the foundation that keeps cultural richness alive.

Centuries before chainsaws were invented and logging corporations founded, the towering trees of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest were growing. Trees that soar to the sky today were already shooting into adolescence when Columbus sailed the seas.

The gentle giants amaze visitors with their arresting size — some trunks are as big as dining room tables — but these rare trees are a disappearing breed.