{"id":5891,"date":"2017-04-30T07:30:26","date_gmt":"2017-04-30T05:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/flyfishing-blog.com\/flyfishing-blog.com\/?p=5891"},"modified":"2017-04-27T10:50:19","modified_gmt":"2017-04-27T08:50:19","slug":"the-umpqua-tongass-initiative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flyfishing-blog.com\/flyfishing-blog.com\/2017\/04\/30\/the-umpqua-tongass-initiative\/","title":{"rendered":"The Umpqua Tongass Initiative"},"content":{"rendered":"

Immense. Wild. Beautiful. Critical.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Welcome to the Tongass National Forest \u2014 what many people call the United States\u2019 most unique national forest. It\u2019s vast \u2014 approximately the size of West Virginia \u2014 and occupies most of Southeast Alaska. At nearly 17 million acres, it is the world\u2019s largest remaining temperate rain forest and hosts some of the rarest ecosystems on the planet…<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

A magnificent landscape of western hemlock, Sitka spruce, western red cedar and yellow cedar trees,\u00a0the Tongass contains\u00a0thousands of mist-covered islands, deep fjords, tidewater glaciers and soggy muskegs that provide ideal habitat for a vast array of wild plant and animal species, including healthy salmon and trout populations. Approximately 40% of the Tongass is composed of wetlands, snow, ice, rock and non-forest vegetation, but the remaining 10 million acres are forested. Beneath these massive conifers are young evergreens and shrubs such as devil\u2019s club, blueberry and huckleberry. Moss and ferns cover the ground, and lichens drape many trees.<\/p>\n

\"Coho
Coho salmon.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The region is home to over 70 species of small and large mammals including squirrels, marten, moose, mountain goats, the Alexander Archipelago wolf and the Sitka Black Tailed Deer. The Tongass is notorious for its brown and black bear populations as there are more bears in the Tongass than in the lower 48 states combined. In addition to the vast number of mammals, there is extensive avian life. Many migratory birds, such as the Arctic Tern, spend summer months nesting on the Tongass\u2019 archipelago.\u00a0Other bird species include Northern Goshawks\u00a0and Marbled Murrelets. As many as 10,000 bald eagles, the world\u2019s largest concentration, reside in the Tongass.<\/p>\n

\"Sockeye.\"
Sockeye.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u200bThe fuel for the entire ecosystem are the fish, particularly the salmon. All five species of North American Pacific salmon use this area as critical spawning and rearing grounds. During their spawning migrations, the salmon bring external nutrients from the Pacific ocean back to the forest where these nutrients feed all the other plants and animals in the Tongass.<\/p>\n

Read more on www.umpqua4tongass.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Immense. Wild. Beautiful. Critical. Welcome to the Tongass National Forest \u2014 what many people call the United States\u2019 most unique national forest. It\u2019s vast \u2014 approximately the size of West Virginia \u2014 and occupies most of Southeast Alaska. At nearly 17 million acres, it is the world\u2019s largest remaining temperate rain forest and hosts some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[259,1617,1381,851],"class_list":["post-5891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-alaska","tag-initiative","tag-tongass","tag-umpqua"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t