Chugach National Forest

Chugach National Forest
Chugach National Forest
	Lost Lake in Chugach National Forest
	Location of Chugach National Forest in Alaska
Location	Alaska, United States
Nearest city	Anchorage, Alaska
Coordinates	60°27′41″N 149°07′34″W / 60.4614912°N 149.1259814°W
Area	6,908,540 acres (27,957.9 km2)
Established	July 23, 1907
Governing body	U.S. Forest Service
Website	Chugach National Forest

The Chugach National Forest is a 6,908,540-acre (27,958 km²)

United States National Forest in south central Alaska. Covering portions of Prince William Sound, the Kenai Peninsula and the Copper River Delta, it was formed in 1907 from part of a larger forest reserve. The Chugach includes extensive shorelines, glaciers, forests and rivers, much of which is untouched by roads or trails. It hosts numerous bird, mammal and marine species, including extensive shorebird habitat and a bald eagle

population larger than the contiguous 48 states combined. Human industry in the forest includes extensive tourism and some mining and oil and gas operations.

History

The area that is now Chugach was settled by the

purchased Alaska from Russia and gold was found in 1888. In 1907, the Chugach National Forest was created from a portion of forest reserve, which had been one of the first of its kind, designated in 1892.^[3]

Geography

It is located in the mountains surrounding

tidewater glaciers, and the Nellie Juan-College Fiord Wilderness Study Area, which covers 2,200,000 acres (8,900 km²). Portions of the Copper River Delta cover approximately 31 percent of the forest, and include the "largest contiguous wetlands complex on North America's Pacific coast". Despite its huge size, there are only 90 mi (140 km) of Forest Service roads, although there are also over 500 mi (800 km) of designated trails.^[4]

The supervisor's office is located in

Girdwood, and Seward.^[5]

In descending order of land area within the forest, it is located in parts of the

Yakutat City and Borough.^[2]

Islands

Green Island is within the Chugach National Forest north of Montague Island in Prince William Sound, Alaska. There are at least three islands named "Green Island" within Alaska.

Gravina Island is also in the Chugach.

Ecology

The Chugach is a

mountain hemlock. This zone is known as the "sub-polar rainforest".^[6]

The Kenai Peninsula section of the forest is home to over 200 colonies of

Pacific salmon found in North America: chinook salmon, sockeye salmon, coho salmon, chum salmon and pink salmon.^[4]

Human impacts

There is very little

Department of the Interior announced that 3,000 acres (12 km²) of forest was no longer open to mining, adding that area to almost 2,000 acres (8.1 km²) that had been previously placed off limits. The affected land borders the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge Wilderness, and the department cited protecting the Russian River and upper Russian Lake Recreation Corridor as the reason for the change.^[8]