Speak up now to keep and expand protected areas in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, or the Western Arctic. The places currently designated as Special Areas recognize that people and animals rely on interconnected natural systems, not fragmented migratory routes and disrupted watersheds. … Read More

It’s our birthday on Dec. 16–and this year we get to blow out 45 candles! We may need to invest in some carbon credits! 😉

To celebrate, we’d like to take a deep breath and reflect with
gratitude on all the people who commit to taking care of Alaska, the planet,
and each other. We want to first acknowledge and honor the leaders and elders
who have come before us, guided us, and taught us to think generations ahead.… Read More

Heidi Helling comes to Trustees by way of research and field work. Here, she talks about her journey from wolves and snow dynamics to legal assistant. … Read More

Trustees shares its staff wish list, and hopes that all your wish lists give you the inspiration and hope, some time outside in the moonlight or sun, and time with the people and animals you love. … Read More

Last month the Bureau of Land Management proposed a revised management plan for the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, or the Western Arctic. The agency’s draft environmental impact statement for the plan offers four alternatives — one that would keep the existing plan in place and three that would revise the plan to open additional, currently protected areas to oil and gas extraction. What we nee is more protection, not less. … Read More

Most of us know someone–or are someone–who finds it hard or even impossible to sit in the same room with a family member because of politics. It makes sense considering the chasms that have worsened these past few years. Many of us feel threatened in one way or another and struggle with how to bridge the divide. Building bridges across the dinner table can help us mend and come together to solve the problems ahead of us. … Read More

Last month we lost an advocate for Alaska and a friend to Trustees. Steve Bickerstaff served on our board from 2005 to 2008, and was Board Secretary in 2008. He cared deeply about natural places, wildlife, and the importance of … Read More

Rachel Briggs joined Trustees last month as a legal fellow. Here she shares a bit of her journey in getting here.   I grew up in Hawaiʻi, a place, like Alaska, abundant in natural beauty. My moms instilled in me … Read More

When people use the phrase “for the birds,” they trivialize what they consider unimportant, but there’s a reason we talk about the canary in the coal mine. What happens to the birds happens to us. We cannot untangle our health … Read More

One of the benefits of working at Trustees for Alaska is that my work often takes me out of my office, sometimes even to the incredible places that we work to protect. Soon after I started as an attorney at Trustees, I was fortunate to be invited on a trip to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. We spent 4 nights in the foothills of the Brooks Range, hiking and exploring the hills and braids of the Kongakut River. Surrounded by a landscape whose scale cannot be captured, the image that I return to often is that of a northern shrike nest, the speckled eggs nestled gently on a bed of ptarmigan feathers.… Read More