Who Gets to Decide the Fate of a Pristine Alaskan Rainforest?
In "Land Less" — the Third-Place Winner of the 2026 Yale Environment 360 Film Contest — filmmaker Alexi Liotti follows the activists fighting a bill that would transfer thousands of acres of Alaskan rainforest to five Native corporations, opening the land to logging. Read more on E360 →
Nearly six decades ago, the United States Congress granted 44 million acres of Alaskan public lands to privately-owned Native corporations, allowing them unrestricted exploitation, including logging. Recently, the state's congressional representatives proposed the Alaska Native Landless Equity Act, which would transfer an additional 115,000 acres from the vast Tongass National Forest — the world's largest temperate rainforest — to five newly established Native corporations.
These lands hold over 80,000 acres of ancient forest, including 60,000 acres of untouched roadless areas. Environmental activists fear substantial portions of this land will be clearcut if the bill becomes law. To uncover the story, British Columbia filmmaker Alexi Liotti followed Joshua Wright, an activist from Southeast Alaska, as he documented pristine and biodiverse areas at risk of logging.
In Juneau, Liotti met with Wanda Culp, a Tlingit matriarch and staunch advocate for the Tongass forest. Culp vehemently opposed the proposed legislation, comparing the logging of old-growth forest to eroding their cultural heritage. Liotti's focus gradually shifted from the Landless Act to questioning which entity should ultimately have the authority to shape the fate of public lands.
He emphasized the importance of seeing places like the Tongass not merely as lines on a map, but as dynamic ecosystems whose future hinges on the decisions made today.
Written by urgent.news from Yale Environment 360's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
