It’s our 50th year! Let’s blow out the candles together. Alaska News Brief January 2024
Nothing calls for a party like the big 5-0, so celebrate we shall!
Trustees for Alaska was founded in 1974, and though five decades of existence really means we’re just getting started, it also means we have a lot to remember, reflect on, tell stories about, and celebrate.
Let’s start this month by giving a big bear hug to our founders, Peg Tileston and Rod Cameron. They saw the need for an Alaska environmental law firm back in the early 1970s and made it happen, then helped it stick. In this month’s newsletter, they share their thoughts and reflections on Trustees and hopes for the future. We cannot thank them enough!
Trustees founders Peg Tileston and Rod Cameron at a 2014 event.
In the coming months, we will continue expressing gratitude to all the people and groups who have helped us along the way. We’ll throw some parties and share lots of stories. We’ll talk about landmark cases, highlight each decade, look to the future, and put the spotlight on the people who helped give Trustees direction, financial support, and the commitment necessary to stay with litigation and issues no matter how long it takes.
Consider that we’ve been working to stop the proposed Pebble mine for nearly two decades and running, and we fought to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from the very beginning and are still on the case.
One of our goals for our 50th involves bringing people together. We will hold gatherings throughout the year, including a Seattle event in March, a concert on May 10 in Anchorage, a salmon cookout in September, and a more intimate party on the date we were officially recognized as Trustees, Dec. 16.
Along the way you might notice people getting goodies in monthly drawings, or telling video stories in social media, or wearing Trustees hoodies and drinking from Trustees mugs.
That’s because our 50th gives us an opportunity to show gratitude and reenergize alongside our partners, supporters, and friends. Another 50th-year goal includes telling the stories of past work that helps inform our current issues and lawsuits. We also want to increase our resiliency by inviting more people to donate monthly.
How can you help us celebrate? Well, first and foremost, stay tuned to event invites and join us whenever you can, and always, always know you can bring your friends!
Second, donate monthly. No matter what amount you give per month, it really helps provide consistent support no matter the roller coaster of legal work and politics and life.
In fact, this year all the monthly donors on our list will be included in monthly drawings for a Trustees goodie bag with a pound of Kaladi Brothers coffee and a Trustees mug. And, drum roll please, all monthly donors will be included in an end-of-year drawing for a backcountry trip with a fabulous local guiding outfit we love, Tundra Travels! (Here’s a story that came from a Tundra Travels trip—A long walk in the Arctic.)
And, finally, you can do one more thing this month—stay engaged and take action to protect Alaska’s lands. Right now, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management is considering a plan to hand over public lands to industry. The Trump administration started the process of opening tens of millions of acres of protected lands to industrialization years ago. The proposal puts 28 million acres of land managed by the Bureau of Land Management in the cross hairs.
These are essential subsistence lands for Alaska communities that are also vital to fish and animals. Opening up these lands across the state to industry exploitation would mean adding to the climate crisis, adding to the biodiversity crisis, and adding to the impacts on food access, culture, and ways of life across the state.
You can support continued protection of these lands by signing a petition by the Wild Salmon Center petition or Alaska Wilderness League, and/or commenting directly to the bureau or during hearings.
One, two, three—engage, support, and act—to help us blow out the candles on our 50th birthday cake!
PS. Thanks to supporters like you, we can continue fighting to protect Alaska’s land, water, air, wildlife and people.
Sweet but brief relief on Pebble while Arctic appeals heat up
Vicki’s Grandpa Jack, sister Julie, Vicki, and Grandma Jackie at Vicki’s law school graduation. Photo by Kathy Clark