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UNDERSTORY

A film to save the largest temperate rainforest on Earth.

By Peak Design

December 8^th, 2021

Filmmaking works. Advocacy works.

Today, Understory, a film we are immensely proud to have sponsored, makes its public-facing launch, available to watch in its entirety for free. This launch comes after both a very successful trip around the festival circuit AND (from what we’ve heard) a showing or two at the highest levels of the U.S. Forest Service. Now, the Forest Service and Biden Administration are working to protect the Tongass National Forest, America's largest carbon sink and the world's largest temperate rainforest. In fact, an open comment period is happening right now on the Forest Service's website.

Watch the film, get educated, then add your voice to the growing chorus demanding protection for the Tongass here.

Understory is about the Tongass National Forest in Southeastern Alaska, as viewed through the eyes of Alaskan fisherman Elsa Sebastian. Understory does not pull punches in putting the timber industry and policy-makers under the microscope and in stepping up to be a voice for both the Tongass National Forest and the people that call Southeast Alaska home.

Regular readers of our Field Notes blog will recognize our longstanding work towards advocating on behalf of the Tongass and Southeast Alaska. Understory is the third film we have sponsored from Wild Confluence Media, the other two being Irreparable Harm and Rock Paper Fish, and we produced our own in-house film Eternal Village over four years ago.

Why all the hubbub about a part of a state none of us are even from? For starters, as American citizens, we should all both know and care about our protected wild places. Those public lands belong to all of us, and their stewardship starts with the political willpower needed to counteract the very real and very organized lobbying efforts of corporate interests looking to profit off of those lands. The beauty of Southeast Alaska is shaped by the same forces that have made it rich in natural resources, and those resources are ripe for extraction. We aren't against industry (that would certainly be hypocritical for a company that makes physical goods) but we are very much in favor of strong policy that keeps industry in check and protects the places where they do business.

Conservation of wild places is an important part of fighting climate change, maintaining biodiversity, fostering strong local economies (tourism bucks are real!), and maintaining/sharing a way of life that the enjoyment of wild places affords us.

By the numbers

The Tongass is the world’s largest temperate rainforest at 16.7 million acres.

When you cut old-growth timber it takes 200 years of tree growing to regain it’s former carbon capture potential.

The U.S. Forest Service is operating at a $600 million net loss in subsidizing logging of the Tongass.

Tourism jobs in outnumber timber jobs 20-to-1 in Southeast Alaska.

UNDERSTORY

UNDERSTORY

UNDERSTORY

Somewhere in the middle of the fairly specific Venn diagram of filmmaking, policy, conservation, and climate change rests a good chunk of Peak Design’s heart and soul. We believe deeply that conservation and policy are two vital ingredients in shaping a livable future where climate change is kept within the realm of ‘manageable’. We also believe that compelling storytelling, primarily through filmmaking, is a legitimate way to educate and catalyze the political willpower needed to make policy changes. Wild Confluence has helped foster meaningful and lasting change through their storytelling, and we are proud to support those ongoing efforts.

© 2026 Peak Design

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