
Hiker on a slope in the Chugach forest

Alpine trees in the Chugach forest

Alpine Lakes in the Chugach forest

Packrafting in Prince William Sound in the Chugach
The 'Chugach National Forest' is a 5.4 million acre (23,000 km²)
United States National Forest in south central
Alaska. It is located in the mountains surrounding
Prince William Sound including the eastern
Kenai Peninsula and the delta of the
Copper River. It is the second largest forest in the U.S. national forest system, and is the northernmost national forest. The Chugach National Forest envelops
Prince William Sound and is surrounded by the
Chugach Mountains. It was originally designated in
1907 by
Theodore Roosevelt and was originally 23 million acres (93 000 km²) in size. Approximately one-third of the area of the forest is rocks and ice. The supervisor's office is located in
Anchorage.
Though the Chugach forest is largely wild, with only 90 miles of Forest Service roads, none of it is currently designated as
wilderness.
Ecology
The Chugach is a
temperate rain forest in the
pacific temperate rain forest region. Here the forest occupies only a very narrow strip between the ocean and the icy alpine zone. The dominant trees are limited to
sitka spruce,
western hemlock and
mountain hemlock. This zone is known as the"sub-polar rainforest".
[Temperate Rainforests of the North Pacific Coast (accessed 2007-05-16).]
References
External links
★
U.S. Forest Service site: Chugach National Forest
★
Alaskan.com: Chugach National Forest
★
The Rainforests of Home, an Atlas of People and Place
★
Temperate Rainforests of the North Pacific Coast