Today only about three percent of the original temperate rainforest in the U.S.A. remains, mostly inside Olympic National Park in Washington State. Prior to the arrival of homesteaders just over a century ago, the Olympic Peninsula contained more than a million acres of old-growth spruce and hemlock.  Because of habitat destruction, many plants and animals have become "island dwellers" inside the park now.

Tropical rainforests comprise only 40% of the world's tropical forests and only 20% of the world's total forests. They cover 6-7% of the Earth's land surface.  Half of the world's plant and animal species live in the tropical rainforests of the world. Thirty acres of trees are cut in the tropical rainforests every minute. As you read this, tropical rainforests are shrinking. Each second a portion of rainforest the size of a football field is destroyed or damaged. What can you do to help save the tropical rainforest?