Save the Alaskan Old Growth Rain Forests!
"A strange, soft storm of white flakes is floating out of the summersky, drifting past tall mountainside evergreens onto the nets of goldenlichens hung from their boughs, onto the bushes colored bysalmonberries and blueberries, onto the bear-tracked shores. This isnot an unseasonal snow squall, not a flurry of wind-borne seeds. It's afall of molted feathers from bald eagles converging on the waterways bythe hundreds, bright heads and tails gleaming like beacons all alongthe dark woodland slopes. A high tide of flesh surges inland from thesea: Every river, every stream, quivers with salmon thrashing upcurrentto spawn like rapids running in reverse. If any more flowing juices andbeating hearts crowded in here, the place might start moving around onits own."
So begins a lyrical, moving piece about Alaska's Tongass National Forest, which contains one of the world's largest rain forests not located in the tropics. The Tongass is an old growth forest, making it an extremely valuable carbon sink, according to this study. However, the Tongass is in grave danger of being destroyed by subsidized logging.
Take action to save this beautiful national treasure! Tell the Bush administration to protect this lovely piece of nature.
(Photo courtesy of Flickr user Neil Clement, shared under a Creative Commons license.)