The Tongass, which is managed by the United States Forest Service, encompasses islands of the Alexander Archipelago, fjords and glaciers, and peaks of the Coast Mountains.

There are local ranger district offices located in Craig, Hoonah, Juneau, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Sitka, Thorne Bay, Wrangell, and Yakutat.

Further presidential proclamations of 16 February 1909 (in the last months of the Roosevelt administration) and 10 June, and in 1925 (by Calvin Coolidge) expanded the Tongass.

[5] On September 4th, 1971, Alaska Airlines Flight 1866 crashed in the Tongass National Forest, killing all 111 people on board.

[6] After the creation of the Tongass National Forest, the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska formed to challenge the federal government's rights to the land in 1935.

[7] In Tlingit and Haida Indians of Alaska v. United States, the court found Alaskan natives held established aboriginal title by their "exclusive use and occupancy of that territory from time immemorial".

Federal District Court judge James von der Heydt ruled in their favor in December 1975[11] and March 1976,[12] enjoining clearcutting of over 150 square miles (390 km2) of the north end of Prince of Wales Island.

[16] In 1990, a Federal District Court in Alaska, in a case called Stein v Barton, held the US Forest Service had to protect all salmon streams in the Tongass with buffer strips.

[17] One of the claims in Stein v Barton for protection of the Salmon Bay Watershed was partially enacted into law when Congress Passed the Tongass Timber Reform Act; environmental lobbyists had compromised with Senator Ted Stevens leaving the most valuable forest available to logging in the headwaters of the salmon streams therein.

However, the Forest Service also conducts NEPA analyses, layout, and administrative operations to support these sales, and as such, the government does not make a profit overall.

[20] Given the guaranteed low prices during contract days and the continued high cost of logging in Southeast Alaska today, one analysis concludes that, since 1980, the Forest Service has lost over one billion dollars in Tongass timber sales.

Southeast Alaska is an extensive landscape, with communities scattered across the archipelago on different islands, isolated from each other and the mainland road system.

Once in place, these roads serve to connect local communities and visitors to recreation, hunting, fishing, and subsistence opportunities long into the future.

In June 2007, U.S. House members added an amendment to the appropriations bill to block federally funded road building in Tongass National Forest.

'"[31] While the Forest Service may reevaluate its approach to roadless area management in the Tongass, it must comply with the requirements of the APA [the federal Administrative Procedures Act] in doing so.

[33] Clear-cut lands lose the carbon sink of old-growth forest, habitat for wildlife, and soil stability, causing landslides.

[33] In June 2021, the Joe Biden administration revealed its intent to "repeal or replace" Trump's removal of roadless designation.

[37] While the timber industry dominated the economy for a long time, the region has transitioned into "non-timber... [sources of revenue] such as recreation, subsistence food, salmon, scientific use, and carbon sequestration [which] contributes more than $2 billion" annually.

The forest is named for the Tongass group of the Tlingit people, who inhabited the southernmost areas of Southeast Alaska, near what is now the city of Ketchikan.

Unique and protected creatures seldom found anywhere else in North America inhabit the thousands of islands along the Alaska coast.

[40] Though its land area is huge, about 40% of the Tongass is composed of wetlands, snow, ice, rock, and non-forest vegetation, while the remaining 10 million acres (40,000 km2) are forested.

Given the high value of these areas for wildlife species, close to 70% of this old growth forest is protected in reserves and will never be eligible for harvest.

Local winter windstorms referred to as the "Takus" can affect the structure of some stands and often cause single-tree blow-downs.

[42] The World Wildlife Fund locates it in their Pacific temperate rain forest 'WWF ecoregion', a geographical area.

This Act conveyed approximately 44,000,000 acres (180,000 km2) of federal land in Alaska to private native corporations which were created under the ANCSA.

[44] On 23 April 2009, Senator Murkowski and U.S. Rep. Don Young introduced a revised Sealaska bill (S. 881 and H.R 2099) that requests public lands that are both economically valuable and environmentally delicate.

Similar concerns were expressed by the Alaska Outdoor Council in letters to Senators Murkowski and Begich and Governor Parnell.