The power of old-growth forests | Film screening & discussion

On April 27, 2021, we hosted a film screening and panel discussion about one of the world’s last intact temperate rainforests that is in jeopardy: Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. We learned about its 800-year-old trees and the policies and people that threaten its survival.

UNDERSTORY is a limited-release documentary produced by Wild Confluence Media and sponsored by The Wilderness Society, that chronicles a sailboat trip around Prince of Wales Island located within the Tongass. Elsa Sebastian, a commercial angler and Alaska panhandle native, sets out on a “ground-truthing” expedition with Natalie Dawson, a field biologist, and Mara Menahan, a botanical illustrator, in an effort to better understand the threats to the old-growth forest.

Panelists:

Elsa Sebastian and Marina Anderson: film's lead characters

Beverley Law: professor emeritus of Global Change Biology and Terrestrial Systems Science at Oregon State University

Megan Birzell: The Wilderness Society’s Washington State Director

Moderator: Faith Briggs