Learn how Trustees for Alaska keeps a watchful eye on the state and federal land and wildlife management agencies to protect Alaska’s wilderness and wildlife.
As a kid growing up in Iowa, there were no oceans. What I initially learned about oceans was that there had been an ocean where Iowa is millions of years ago, and we went on a field trip to collect fossils of those long-dead small sea creatures.… Read More
Talking about the weather isn’t chitchat anymore.
When wildfires turn the sky apocalyptic orange hundreds of miles away, when floods turn city infrastructure to rubble, when heat makes walking outside lethal, it isn’t filler conversation—it is THE conversation. This is where sperm whales come in; when I feel disheartened, frustrated, angry at our species, I want to hang out with whales…… Read More
Maybe you’ve heard the term “D1” in sports (division 1) or in construction (course gravel material), but “D1” means something quite different when talking about land in Alaska.
Here, D1 lands refer to areas protected from mining and mineral leasing since the 1970s. They are commonly called D1 lands because they were withdrawn pursuant to section 17(d)(1) of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.… Read More
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
At 28 and just a few years out of law school, Katie Strong left a policy-focused job in Yellowstone to work on the 2010 Pebble mine trial for Trustees for Alaska. She wanted to litigate and finally got her chance.… Read More
We went to the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals last month to protect polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea and nearshore North Slope area from oil and gas operations that could injure or kill bears. … Read More
Too many pandemic lessons have gotten lost as the engine of “normal” revs back up. COVID awareness around the deep unfairness and unhealthiness baked into our economic and social systems has been swept under the rug of consumption and record profits and business as usual.
Even the lessons about how to prepare for deadly pandemics, wildfires, and storms has been forgotten in the rush to “get back at it.”
But business is not usual. Life is not “normal.” We’re already in a pot of hot water that’s set to boil, and we’re still resistant to change.… Read More
Learn about the proposed West Susitna Industrial Access Road through our storymap.… Read More
In 2020 we went to court to stop a U.S. National Park Service rule from allowing sport hunting activities like brown bear baiting on national preserves in Alaska. We won in 2022 when a U.S. District Court judge found the rule unlawful and sent it back to Park Service to fix. Now there’s a new proposed rule and there’s a lot to like about it. … Read More
I took some time off to see my family in early March. Within a day of returning, it felt like I hadn’t left at all.
Instead, I felt like someone delivered a soggy old cabbage sandwich made up of somewhat good news stuffed with clearly bad news. I’m as hungry for good news as anyone, but this dish tastes bitter.… Read More