Earlier this month, I joined my mom on her last—for now—“bucket list” adventure. We took the train to the Canadian Rocky Mountains for two days from Vancouver to Banff, going from an urban landscape and rainforest into high desert into boreal forest. Then we rented a car to spend some time in Lake Louise and Calgary. Stunning! And, because life works this way, I caught a virus at the end of this short-but-sweet trip.… Read More

In late May, the U.S. Supreme Court again stepped out of its role as interpreter of the Constitution and law and did what only Congress is allowed to do: Rewrite the definition of “waters of the United States” in the Clean Water Act.  If you care about clean water and understand the tremendous progress made in the last 50 years in cleaning up rivers choked with so much pollution they burned, seeing huge fish kills because of toxic pollutants, and seeing beaches closed to swimming because people were getting sick, then you should worry about how the Sackett v. EPA case reverses that progress. … Read More

Learn about the proposed West Susitna Industrial Access Road through our storymap.… Read More

By Dawnell Smith Clean energy is in the air these days—in the sun, the wind, the water, and the forces and cycles of nature that have always run things around here. Decision-makers, lobbyists, and public relations teams that once undermined … Read More

One of the things that most struck me in flying across the proposed Ambler road route was just how complex the waterways are across the Southern Brooks Range. Waters flow down off the mountains of the Brooks Range and crisscross the vast valleys down below. In just the distance between Coldfoot and Iniakuk Lake, we flew over countless winding rivers, streams, and lakes.… Read More

It doesn’t take long spending time with dogs, bears, birds and bees to know they communicate. Some animals even manipulate. Only human animals uniquely share knowledge, wisdom, tall tales and lies through stories. The writer Margaret Atwood describes the origin of storytelling as the coupling of language with concepts of the past, present, and future to help people learn about what happened before—to teach people things to avoid having to learn by trial and error every time.… Read More

The Alaska legislature finishes its first session of the year in mid-May, and there’s a lot going on. Some of it sounds weedy, confusing, even like good news for climate. There’s more than meets the eye, though, so let’s take a look under the surface. … Read More

We first crossed paths with Warren Keogh when he served as vice president of the Castle Mountain Coalition – a citizen group that has worked to promote the health of the Matanuska watershed for decades. We talked to him about Alaska, advocacy and how he contributes to the health of land, water, and communities. … Read More

For years, Alaskans have made it clear that trading salmon for copper and gold is a bad deal that they’re unwilling to make. And for good reason: Bristol Bay fishery is having another record-setting year, with over 65.5 million sockeye salmon returning to Bristol Bay.… Read More