Most Americans associate rainforests with faraway countries in Central and South America and West Africa. But there is actually a rainforest here in the United States, and like rainforests in other corners of the world, it is at risk from logging.

Along the coast of Southeast Alaska lies the largest intact temperate rainforest left in the world. Most of it falls within the boundaries of our nation's two largest national forests: the Tongass and Chugach National Forests. This rainforest contains towering stands of old-growth hardwood. Some of the trees are more than 700 years old! The area also provides critical habitat to threatened species like the grizzly bear and bald eagle.

This unique ecosystem is at peril from commercial logging and clearcutting. As with most timber sales in federal forests, logging in the Tongass is heavily subsidized with taxpayers' dollars. Between 1982 and 2002, cumulative losses for Tongass timber sales reached $750 million, or an annual average loss of $37 million.

In 2000, I joined a bipartisan group of House members that urged the Clinton Administration to protect the Tongass Forest as part of its roadless forest initiative, and President Clinton agreed. However, in December 2003, the Bush Administration revoked roadless area protections from millions of acres of the Tongass.

For all these reasons, I have joined Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro and more than 90 other members of the House of Representatives as an original cosponsor of H.R. 1155, the “Alaska Rainforest Conservation Act.” This legislation would provide permanent protection status for nearly 15 million acres of the Chugach and Tongass National Forests.