In memory of a fierce advocate for good: Alaska News Brief September 2022
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In memory of a fierce advocate for good: Alaska News Brief September 2022

We lost a friend and board member to cancer last month. Glo Chythlook was a fierce advocate for clean water and healthy fish. Whenever she talked about what mattered to her, she always returned to salmon and her community. She always spoke boldly and with care about what it means to protect land, water, and relationships.

Glo Chythlook in a place she loved and protected. Photo courtesy of her family.

Glo described herself as bicultural and bilingual (Yup’ik/Scandanavian) and as a third generation Bristol Bay commercial fisherman. Life on the ocean clearly permeated through her perspectives and stories.

Glo joined the Trustees board in early 2021. Her views and values resonated with Trustees’ mission to protect Alaska from resource exploitation, and to fight for permanent and dedicated protections for the land and water that sustains communities. Stopping the proposed Pebble mine in her fishing grounds and home had been part of her advocacy for years.

She grew up and lived in the Bristol Bay village of Aleknagik, where she said her childhood brought a life of adventure, exploration, fishing, hunting, and playing outside—and learning to take care of the land by taking only what’s needed and providing for others in the community.

Alaska’s bountiful moose and caribou were the foods of her life and that of her family’s for millennia, along with the salmon that filled her nets every summer.

She grew up learning that resources used up would cease to exist and not be there during the lean times—or ever. Taking care of the land and water, and everything they provide, means taking care of future generations and the future of the planet, she said.

When talking about Trustees’ work, Glo always asked great questions and offered key insights, and expressed her frustration with the burden a threat like the Pebble mine proposal posed to her community and culture. She was fierce about protecting and caring for Alaska’s fish, animals, and habitat, particularly the place she knew best—Bristol Bay.

Glo casting a wide net of love and life. Photo courtesy of her family.

Glo gave so much to her family and community and cared so much for those around her that she filled her life to capacity. She was an emergency services coordinator for Aleknagik. A grant writer and leader in multiple organizations. She supported North Slope environmental issues, the Barrow Arctic Research Center, and cultural and archeological efforts related to the impacts of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. She served on the boards of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, the Turnagain Arm Health Center, and Trustees for Alaska.

She cast the net of her love and life wide.

We join so many others who will miss Glo’s passion and curiosity, and hold her wisdom and care close to our hearts. We will forever do this work in remembrance of and honor to her warmth, strength, and glow.

We are so grateful to have had Glo in the Trustees family. There are no words to express our deep condolences to her daughter Callan and the rest of their family.


PS. Thanks to supporters like you, we can continue fighting to protect Alaska’s land, water, air, wildlife and people!


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