Chugach National Forest

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Chugach National Forest
IUCN Category VI (Managed Resource Protected Area)

Location	Alaska, USA
Nearest city	Anchorage, AK
Coordinates	61°15′00″N 149°19′00″W / 61.25, -149.316667
Area	5.4 million acres (23,000 km²)
Established	July 23, 1907
Governing body	U.S. Forest Service

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.

In descending order of land area within the forest it is located in parts of the Valdez-Cordova Census Area, Kenai Peninsula Borough, Anchorage Municipality, Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Kodiak Island Borough, and Yakutat City and Borough. [1]

[edit] 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". ^[1]