Film Screening Highlights Rainforest Protection As Climate Solution

The free, online film screening and panel discussion highlighting the importance of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest to helping combat the climate crisis underscores the need to restore protections there. 

April 27, at 8 p.m. ET, The Wilderness Society will show the new, limited-release documentary Understory: A Journey Into The Tongass, followed by a panel discussion, “The Power of Old-Growth Forests: Why Letting Trees Stand is One of the Best Climate Solutions.” 

Understory details three women’s 350-mile expedition through Alaska’s vast Tongass National Forest to explore how clearcut logging in the coastal rainforest could affect wildlife, local communities and our planet’s climate. The Tongass is one of the largest temperate rainforests in the world. It is the ancestral homeland and current home of numerous Indigenous Alaskans who’s very livelihood depends on a healthy forest. Additionally, the Tongass’ waterways provide one-quarter of the West Coast’s annual salmon harvest. Protections that prevented logging and other industrial development on 9.4 million acres were recently eliminated. 

Following the film screening, a panel of activists and experts, and the main characters of the film will answer questions and discuss why it’s important to protect old-growth forests like the Tongass. The panel, moderated by filmmaker and public lands advocate Faith Briggs, includes:

• Elsa Sebastian - Commercial angler, Tongass resident and the film’s lead character
• Marina Anderson - Tribal vice president of the Organized Village of Kasaan, Tongass resident and a character in the film
• Beverly Law - Professor Emeritus of Global Change Biology & Terrestrial Systems Science at Oregon State University Ecologist, professor emeritus at Oregon State
• Megan Birzell - Washington State Director, The Wilderness Society

“National Forests like the Tongass are one of our strongest allies in the fight against the climate crisis,” said Josh Hicks, assistant director of forest policy and planning at The Wilderness Society. “Old-growth forests offset a significant amount of our country’s annual carbon emissions. We are excited to host the screening of Understory and facilitate a discussion about simple climate solutions such as letting old-growth trees stand. We hope attendees will feel compelled to take action to protect the Tongass.”

For most of two decades, the Tongass' wildest and most sensitive stretches were protected from road-building and other industrial development. In 2020, the Trump administration removed protections from 9.4 million acres of the Tongass. 



On day one of his administration, President Biden requested a review of the Trump rulemaking process in Alaska that excluded the Tongass National Forest from the Roadless Rule. This move signals that the President understands the significance of the Tongass’s role in combating climate change. The Wilderness Society is urging the public to sign a petition directed at the White House to follow through on protecting the Tongass National Forest.

CONTACT: Jen Parravani, The Wilderness Society

(202) 601-1931 | jparravani@tws.org