The season of care—Alaska News Brief May 2026
The month of May tends to make people happy and keep them...
14 May, 2026
Litigation 101: What are declarations and why are we preparing so many right now?
By Dawnell Smith You know those courtroom dramas where someone stands up and stuns the room with a declaration that no one saw coming?...
14 May, 2026
Help protect the Arctic Refuge. Write your “Dear Big Oil” letter now
by Dawnell Smith The Trump administration plans to auction off public land sacred...
06 May, 2026
Interior’s fist pumping lease sale and Big Oil’s gluttonous ride—Alaska News Brief April 2026
The Interior Department held a lease sale last month that offered a...
15 April, 2026
News on Arctic lawsuits and lease sales
By Dawnell Smith The Trump administration continues using whatever means it chooses, even when unlawful and without consideration of impacts, to...
16 March, 2026
Beings and biomes—Arctic raptors
By Dawnell Smith A peregrine falcon pivots from soaring majesty to plummeting projectile...
16 March, 2026
On beings and biomes—the translucent bear
By Dawnell Smith In Phillip Pullman’s “The Dark Materials” books, the mighty polar bear finds himself exiled from his kingdom. Humans trick him into drunkenness, so...
12 February, 2026
Arctic news—threats loom over the Arctic Refuge and Southern Brooks Range
By Madison Grosvenor A series of federal actions and legal developments this month...
12 February, 2026
Our Arctic Refuge litigation ramps up, and caribou herd populations show a decline
By Dawnell Smith Yesterday we filed an amended and supplemental complaint in our 2020 lawsuit challenging the shoddy Trump leasing...
14 January, 2026
Margaret Williams talks about the Arctic
By Margaret Williams, Trustees board member As a kid growing up in a...
18 December, 2025
On beings and biomes—sea ice is everyone’s business
By Madison Grosvenor Though frozen, the sea ice biome is anything but still....
16 December, 2025
Winter is coming—and the threat to the Arctic is seismic
By Dawnell Smith When you hear oil companies talk about looking for oil...
17 October, 2025
On beings and biomes—the perpetual homecoming of migratory birds
by Dawnell Smith Three years ago, a four-month-old bar-tailed godwit flew nonstop for...
12 September, 2025
On beings and biomes—caribou and their migrations
By Madison Grosvenor Each year in Alaska, caribou carve their way across thousands...
13 August, 2025
Waste no time—the Arctic needs you to speak up right now
Last week the Trump administration took another swing at the Arctic and...
24 June, 2025
Court ruling lets ConocoPhillips dig in on the Willow oil project
By Dawnell Smith An appellate court decision last week allows ConocoPhillips to continue...
18 June, 2025
On beings and biomes—a year in the tundra
By Madison Grosvenor Alaska’s tundra is a land of extremes, where life has...
14 April, 2025
Our response to the Trump administration’s industrialization agenda in Alaska
The Trump administration released a rash of executive orders on Jan. 20....
21 January, 2025
Good news for the Arctic Refuge—no bids submitted in latest lease sale
By Madison Grosvenor This month, the U.S. Department of the Interior held the...
15 January, 2025
The 50th Anniversary series: Landmark cases
By Dawnell Smith A winning lawsuit can set the stage for legal interpretations...
20 December, 2024
The fifth decade—goodbye coal, hello chaos
By Dawnell Smith The last decade feels like a dust storm—like a blur...
22 November, 2024
Some things always/never change: Alaska News Brief October 2024
By Teresa Clemmer, legal director We’ve had an incredibly rainy summer—fifth wettest on...
18 October, 2024
An Agiak adventure to remember
By Teresa Clemmer To celebrate our 50th Anniversary, a cohort of Trustees for...
17 July, 2024
A lackluster hunting rule and the latest onslaught of lawsuits
By Dawnell Smith We got the blahs last month when the National Park...
17 July, 2024
Good news on Ambler, D1 lands, and the western Arctic
By Madison Grosvenor We should all joyfully yelp and holler for the good...
17 July, 2024
The third decade—clean water, mud-slinging, and nature running wild
By Madison Grosvenor Trustees for Alaska’s third decade focused heavily on the oil...
18 June, 2024
Music to our ears: Alaska News Brief May 2024
We got snow this month, but no matter, because the birds keep...
17 May, 2024
The second decade—dialed up to 11
By Dawnell Smith If you sum up the 1980s in a few words,...
17 May, 2024
Lydia’s (not forever) farewell to her love at first sight
Up until my last year of law school, Alaska was never on...
16 May, 2024
Are you a joyful animal? — Alaska News Brief April 2024
I returned to the office last week after spending part of my...
19 April, 2024