“We want to give trees a voice,” NPR science reporter Christopher Joyce said in our Preview. To do that, he traveled to Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, home of the last great temperate rain forest in the Americas.

Enter the rain forest: Download Part 1 or Part 2. Close your eyes. Listen. (You’ll need RealAudio.)

Christopher Joyce trekked the Tongass to help a pair of “muddy-boots biologists” map the endangered old-growth trees they call landmarks. Along the way he met unforgettable people, saw clear-cuts “looking like mange on a dog’s back,” and found out where a bear sleeps in the woods (wherever it wants).

Go beyond the broadcast with The Story Behind the Story.