Third Place

"Reigning Tongass Rainforest"

During a downpour, a black bear stands in the top of a spruce tree in the Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska. The Tongass National Forest is the world's largest remaining temperate rainforest and the bears reign as the apex predator in the forest. For years the Tongass was massively clear-cut, but the massive clear cuts for the now are mostly in the past. Healthy bear populations are a sign of a healthy forest.