Indigenous Peoples Day

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Indigenous Peoples Day is on Monday. It was created as a state holiday through legislation signed into law in 2017 by former Governor Walker in a ceremony held during Utqiaġvik’s annual Nalukataq whaling festival. It replaces Columbus Day, and it is a small step toward atonement for the colonialism of our American and Alaskan history. 

On this Indigenous Peoples Day, let’s not focus only on the importance of Indigenous leadership in the historic, amazing, hopeful, wonderful, progressive, life-affirming, joyful, and extremely well-earned election of Mary Peltola, the first Indigenous Alaskan to ever in the history of planet earth, serve in the United States Congress. Let’s not only focus on the justice of the appointment of Deb Haaland to oversee Indigenous lands and waters as the first Indigenous Secretary of the Interior. Let’s not only focus on the myriad ways Indigenous leadership has and will continue to move policies forward in Alaska – from Tribal Recognition to Language Revitalization to Subsistence Rights and Salmon Protection.

On this Indigenous Peoples Day, let’s focus on and give thanks for the Indigenous leadership and stewardship that has created the Alaska we live in today. From Utqiagvik to Metlakatla.  Think of the thousands of years of human experience in the mountains and rivers, at the ocean shore, in the muskegs, taiga, forests, and tundra. Let’s give thanks today to those who lived and worked and played here for thousands of years and will for thousands of years to come.

We at The Alaska Center recognize the colonial structures inherent in the history of the conservation movement, including the historical displacement of Indigenous communities from land and policies that have negatively impacted Indigenous hunting and fishing rights. We will be celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day in honor of all those Alaska Native leaders on whose lands we are blessed to live and continue working toward a more equitable and just future.

We are in this together,
The Alaska Center Team

EVENTS YOU CAN JOIN:

Strength in Unity Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Rally

Indigenous Peoples Day Beading Workshop

Indigenous Peoples Day Hkaditali Ceremony w/APF

Indigenous Peoples Day Celebration

Big Energy for Clean Energy

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October is “National Energy Awareness Month,” designated by a decree from the late president George Herbert Walker Bush in 1991. We at The Alaska Center believe that every month gives us reason to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy production, considering what is at stake without a rapid global transition to low-carbon energy sources. The recent storms that battered the Bering Sea and Norton Sound region point to the urgency. Energy awareness also saves homes and businesses money and creates local jobs.

Collective work to create a more energy-aware state includes new additions to our Solarize programs, celebrating the first deal under Anchorage’s Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy program and CPACE’s expansion to the Mat-Su Borough, helping steward public involvement in the Fairbanks Climate Action and Adaptation Plan.

Solarize Fairbanks facilitated two communities this season, University Heights and Denali, with 94kW purchased and over 16 homes and businesses solarized. That brings the initiative to just under a megawatt, rising at 893.35kW purchased and installed across the Interior. The team hosted community listening sessions during September to gain valuable feedback on evolving the Solarize model for 2023.
Solarize Mat Su held its first campaign this year! We facilitated programs in the Palmer and Sutton/Chickaloon communities. Installations are still underway, but at least 35 homes have Solarized. We will have an end-of-year celebration for those communities participating when installation season is over, expected in late October to early November.

Solarize Anchorage and Solarize Mat Su will start the 2023 season on October 6th with a kickoff webinar>>

Rachel Christensen and Chris Pike with The Alaska Center for Energy and Power will walk you through how your community can Solarize. Solarize Mat-Su will also be hosting an informational session in Talkeetna at the Denali Education Center on October 13th at 6:00 pm. We are currently planning many community events throughout October and November, so if you are interested in attending one, please head to our Facebook page to stay up to date!

The first Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy loan closed in Anchorage this fall. This program, adopted by municipal ordinance and authorized by state law, attaches an energy efficiency or renewable energy project loan to a property instead of an individual and allows the owner to pay the loan back as a line on their property tax bill. The project’s energy savings are often equal to or greater than the annual loan repayment charge, making the program cash neutral. The Mat-Su Borough Assembly is currently considering adopting CPACE. Our work hosting the Alaska Municipal Climate Network has helped local government leaders connect on policies, including CPACE, which we hope to see expand to local governments statewide.

Climate Action starts at home, the individual business, and the local government level. We are pleased to support the creation of a Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP) within the Fairbanks North Star Borough. Throughout this fall, our Interior Community Organizing Manager, Alyssa Quintyne, along with other The Alaska Center staff, will be working with Fairbanks Climate Action Coalition and other community leaders to ensure that the public has all of the tools they need to support the creation of a CAAP to guide energy decisions at the borough. Find more information, meeting dates, and links to the draft CAAP visioning document here>>

Throughout October and the rest of 2022, The Alaska Center will be focused on moving the ball forward on energy, with energy.
Thank you. Have a restorative energy weekend.
-The Alaska Center Team

Moving Through Climate Anxiety

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Join The Climate Strike

People across the world are contending with a swirl of climate anxiety. Across our state, we navigate the trauma of lost economies, crops no longer growing abundantly, salmon not making it to our communities, and, most recently, storms becoming more destructive than we have seen in 100 years. Our people are hurting, and our youth have taken on a considerable weight to fight for a future within all of this. In a study published in the Lancet, students from ten countries reported 59% of youth experiencing extreme worry while 84% experienced moderate worry about climate change. Our youth in Alaska is no exception.

Even though the anxiety is justified, when it gets to the level that it freezes us up, it becomes unhelpful and doesn’t serve us or our goals. We must give options and build hope through action and policy to help us and the generations that will lead us move forward through these dark times.

Community advocacy is a medium with meaningful and immediate effects. We’re not past the point of no return. Every effort we make today helps reduce the negative impacts of climate change we’ll feel tomorrow.
Moving forward into next year’s legislative session, we will have great opportunities to advocate for policy and funding that will support investments in renewable energy infrastructure and much more. We also can advocate for community-based solutions like getting our schools’ foods sourced locally, reducing energy consumption in our public buildings, prioritizing plant spaces and community gardens in city neighborhoods, and defending the Indigenous stewardship of carbon sinks. Community-based solutions allow us to make a change that works with and for all Alaskans.

We’re not experiencing climate change effects alone. And we will not create viable climate solutions alone. This network we are building with all of you will motivate the change we need to see.

We’ve got an opportunity to build that network now. Alaska Youth for Environmental Action will be part of the Global Youth Climate Strike on September 23 in Anchorage Town Square from 1:00-3:00 pm. Alaskan youth will strike in solidarity with young people across the world. It’s our responsibility as adult allies to support their efforts and amplify their messages. The young people of Alaska deserve a just future, and it’s time our leaders recognize this and prioritize #PeopleNotProfit.

We hope to see you there.

A Constitutional Convention would be costly and dangerous.

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Alaskans have a duty to examine the question of rewriting the constitution every ten years. However, voters have never approved opening up the whole constitution after it was first crafted in 1956 and laid the legal foundation for what was to become the State of Alaska in 1959.

Why We Endorse Voting No On A Constitutional Convention

There are some in Alaska who wish to modify portions of the constitution largely to rearrange the social fabric of Alaska and to one degree or another, but all scenarios where we hold a convention and rework our laws come with challenges intended and not intended.
If we vote to hold a Constitutional Convention, the result will be confusion, debate, and amplification of societal divisions. Delegates are to be elected, which will likely result in incumbent lawmakers who know well how to run in elections forming the majority of the delegates. We will then have the same folks who can’t agree on an annual budget or who to name as Speaker of the House, in charge of rewriting potentially the entire state constitution. Any estimate on time-frames for this Convention had best be doubled, tripled, or quadrupled. The same goes for the cost estimate just to hold the Convention.

A Constitutional Convention in Alaska will be a battleground for national politics. High-profile politicians from around the country will weigh in. Money from nationwide groups will pour in to help sow confusion, tip the scales, distract and divide Alaskans. Koch Brothers will pour money in. National Right to Life groups will pour money in. Religious Education groups will pour money in. The national sport-fish lobby will pour money in. Global mining and oil and gas will pour money in. Local non-profit groups will battle one another on social media and public forums. Neighbors, already believing that Civil War is imminent and that the political system is rigged, will have even more reason to stay away from the neighborhood barbecue.

The battle over the foundational document for our legal system in Alaska will be as ugly as anything we have seen in our political lives. In the end, millions will be spent lobbying delegates. The state will incur tens of millions of dollars in legal costs associated with holding and defending the Convention and rewriting all of the statutes that will be altered or invalidated by the changed constitutional language.
After years of acrimony, division, debate, and influence by outside lobby, the outcome could be a constitution that changes fundamental protections for land and water. For instance – Article 8 of the constitution states that:

“The legislature shall provide for the utilization, development, and conservation of all natural resources belonging to the State, including land and waters, for the maximum benefit of its people. Wherever occurring in their natural state, fish, wildlife, and waters are reserved to the people for common use.”

A few tweaks to the language and private companies that impact salmon habitat, and increase climate change could end up with greater rights than Alaskans. Decision makers could abolish the Judicial Council and our state judiciary’s independence paving the way for measures that could erode our democracy. You can bet that attorneys for the delegates will insert numerous poison pills throughout the constitution whose impact will not be known when the new document is ratified.

Alaskans have enough on their plate fighting climate change, protecting our democracy, our salmon runs, and the health of our communities. A big, expensive and divisive battle to rewrite the very foundation of our state’s laws is not wise. Recall again that when the constitution was initially written, it was by a group of individuals fighting for statehood. At the end of the day, they were aligned around a common purpose. A convention today lacks that spirit entirely and would be good for fanning the flames of division but bad for Alaska.

Vote No on One,
The Alaska Center

BREAKING NEWS: Our next chapter of leadership!

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[cs_content][cs_element_section _id=”1″ ][cs_element_layout_row _id=”2″ ][cs_element_layout_column _id=”3″ ][cs_element_text _id=”4″ ][cs_content_seo]Greetings, friends and supporters.
We hope everyone is staying safe and healthy. We have some exciting news!
Concluding a thorough, national executive search process, the boards are excited to announce that we selected Victoria Long-Leather and Chantal de Alcuaz as Co-Executive Directors of The Alaska Center (AKC) and The Alaska Center Education Fund (AKCEF).   \n\n[/cs_content_seo][/cs_element_layout_column][/cs_element_layout_row][/cs_element_section][cs_element_section _id=”5″ ][cs_element_layout_row _id=”6″ ][cs_element_layout_column _id=”7″ ][cs_element_image _id=”8″ ][/cs_element_layout_column][cs_element_layout_column _id=”9″ ][cs_element_image _id=”10″ ][/cs_element_layout_column][/cs_element_layout_row][/cs_element_section][cs_element_section _id=”11″ ][cs_element_layout_row _id=”12″ ][cs_element_layout_column _id=”13″ ][cs_element_text _id=”14″ ][cs_content_seo]Coming from their current leadership roles within the organizations, Chantal and Vicki are poised to strengthen our work while bringing fresh perspectives and increased capacity. We believe this leadership model will equip our organizations to grow our work to meet the challenges facing our communities, our state, and the world.
Many of you will recognize Vicki and Chantal as well-respected and effective members of The Alaska Center team. Vicki has been the Director of Trailside Discovery Camp, oversaw our youth education programs for more than five years, and more recently served as Deputy Director. Chantal joined AKC/AKCEF as Development Director in 2019, creating strong and effective fundraising and development operations. She also brings valuable political skills and grassroots experience working with marginalized communities to this new role.
Vicki and Chantal are proven leaders with a clear vision for our organizations. They bring a breadth of experience and skills in complementary areas. Over the past three years, they have worked collaboratively as executive team members to support the organization’s health and growth. They are ready to continue this collaboration and growth in their new roles. The Co-Executive configuration is part of a movement in nonprofits to rethink the traditional, hierarchical work model.
Chantal and Vicki recognize the disparity of privilege among Alaskan communities and understand a robust democracy requires the full participation of Alaskans of all languages, geographies, abilities, and identities. As Co-Directors, they will focus on broadening access to civic engagement and advocacy throughout Alaska, elevating the voices of young people, women, people of color, and recent immigrants.
Vicki and Chantal assume their co-directorship on October 15, 2022. Outgoing Executive Director Polly Carr will stay in an advisory role until November 4 to ensure a smooth transition.
Please join us in welcoming Vicki and Chantal as our new Co-Executive Directors.
Please let us know if you have any questions!
Thank you, stay well.
Griffin Plush, Chair, The Alaska Center Education Fund
Sally Rue, Chair, The Alaska Center \n\n[/cs_content_seo][/cs_element_layout_column][/cs_element_layout_row][/cs_element_section][cs_element_section _id=”15″ ][cs_element_layout_row _id=”16″ ][cs_element_layout_column _id=”17″ ][cs_element_gap _id=”18″ ][cs_element_button _id=”19″ ][cs_content_seo]More Of Our Blog\n\n[/cs_content_seo][/cs_element_layout_column][/cs_element_layout_row][/cs_element_section][/cs_content]

Labor Day: Clean Energy Union Jobs for Climate

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[cs_content][cs_element_section _id=”1″ ][cs_element_layout_row _id=”2″ ][cs_element_layout_column _id=”3″ ][cs_element_text _id=”4″ ][cs_content_seo]Hi all,
As we look forward to the upcoming three-day weekend and plan how to spend the time with loved ones and with the land, you wouldn’t be alone if you’re wondering why we have a “Labor Day” at all.
Labor Day is a holiday to commend workers and the labor movement–it came about as a national holiday in the wake of massive labor disputes (the New York Times tells the history much better than we could ever hope to). It’s an excellent chance to thank the labor movement for the benefits we all enjoy today (including wage and work condition standards, an 8-hour work day, the end of child labor, and the list goes on).
Looking forward, there are plans to make beyond the Monday holiday. For starters, in the environmental movement, we need to work on building partnerships with our labor allies.
We’re often told (by some losing far-right candidates in particular) a false narrative about labor and the environment: it’s a pick one question between addressing climate change and supporting the economy. This narrative couldn’t be further from the truth–not only is the clean energy sector growing while traditional oil/gas is declining but creating climate solutions means creating jobs. A Just Transition includes and necessitates unions. The BlueGreen Alliance (an L48 nonprofit uniting the labor and environmental movements) puts it well: “Americans face the dual crises of climate change and increasing economic inequality, and for far too long, we’ve allowed the forces driving both crises to create a wedge between the need for economic security and a living environment. We know this is a false choice—we know that we can and must have both, and we need a bold plan to address both simultaneously.”
There is a massive opportunity for good jobs for Alaskans in creating a clean energy future (this study from the Alaska Climate Alliance does an excellent job, among others). And, at long last, we’re seeing momentum toward harnessing that opportunity from the federal level in the form of the historic Inflation Reduction Act. As we mentioned last week, the IRA’s wage and apprenticeship program requirements mean that the millions of clean energy jobs will meet union-created working standards. It is an essential step in the right direction for the clean energy industry, which often lags behind the standards of living that union workers in the fossil fuel industry have fought for and won over decades.
This Labor Day, we encourage you to support our labor partners. If you’re in Juneau or Fairbanks, please consider joining the festivities! (No events yet in Anchorage–but stay tuned to our labor friends on social – Twitter, Instagram, Facebook)

Fairbanks: Parade starts at 10 AM at Noel Wein Library; Picnic in Pioneer Park 1-4
Juneau: Picnic from 11-2, Sandy Beach Log Cabin

In solidarity,
The Alaska Center

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Support Black Business Month

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August is Black Business Month, a time to celebrate and amplify Black leadership in economic development and entrepreneurship across the country. Today we want to reflect on the importance of amplifying Black leadership in diversifying our economy and helping make the transition from an extractive economy to one that is thriving, just, and sustainable. There can be no climate justice without racial justice.

Across Alaska, we are straining our pocketbooks to pay ever-increasing utilities, food costs, and gas while simultaneously, our climate is in crisis. It has never been more evident: we desperately need to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, and create safe jobs that grow our workforce, sustain our resources, and help our communities thrive. This transition can range from new regenerative businesses like kelp harvesting, to broad-based investment in renewable energy, to supporting our small local artisans and businesses. However, the policies and projects we move forward with are only part of the solution. In supporting a just transition in Alaska, we also need to consider who is moving this process forward and ensure a diversity of representation in leaders and business owners.
Alaska and our country have been built on exploitation and extraction. Black and marginalized communities have carried an overwhelming environmental burden for centuries. Despite facing disproportionate impacts of the climate, economic, and health crises, Black, Indigenous, and Communities of Color are at the forefront of developing new, innovative, and regenerative economies that support sustainable growth. By supporting this work, we can change the story of what economic development looks like in Alaska and take steps toward economic justice.

There is inspired Black leadership across our state, creating new opportunities for all Alaskans. Check out the Alaska Black Business Directory to support Black businesses in your community.

If you are in Anchorage, we encourage you to attend these amazing events brought to you by Umoja CoWorking and Incubator space and The Alaska Black Chamber of Commerce:

Business Mixer: 6PM August 27 at Umoja Coworking Space “Network, connect, build and learn how Black Chambers help.”
Onsite Childcare provided

Business & Economic Empowerment Retreat: September 17 at Dimond Center Hotel.
“Take some time to recharge and focus on your economic growth and development while hearing from State and National Speakers to include Calvin Martyr, Founder Blackout Coalition.”

To register to attend or sponsor or donate (All amounts help- both monetary and in-kind) check out this link: www.alaskablackbusinessdirectory.com/support

For more info and to get involved in either of these events email alaskablackchamberofcommerce@gmail.com

A just transition is for all of us, and we can get there by supporting the innovators in the new economy we are building.
The Alaska Center

A Big Step Forward For Climate

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The passage of the most historic climate legislation in U.S. history should give us a moment of hope for the process of lawmaking and Democracy in our country – a brief, sweet moment of exaltation.

Now on the next beat, as heatwaves, wildfires, and floods rage across the globe, we must also take some time to recognize the urgent need for the legislation and the bitter tradeoffs that occurred with the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). We are looking at the sacrifice of millions of acres of offshore oil and gas leases in Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico, and elsewhere before federal leases for renewable energy production can be offered. This means, in many instances, especially in Alaska, that coastal and Indigenous lands are Joe Manchin’s tradeoff for the compromise that got the bill through congress. This is a bad compromise, even with the IRA’s historic investment in environmental justice.

On the next beat, it is good to remind ourselves that this is just the starting point for a much larger race to save the planet, defeat racism and protect Democracy. The majority of Americans are with us, and momentum continues toward a just future.
Many of the provisions of the IRA will reverberate in Alaska. The bill contains important apprenticeship and wage requirements that will provide good jobs for Alaskans, and makes sure the clean energy industry catches up to the union-created standards of working that the fossil fuel industry requires.

The IRA substantially increases support for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s existing efforts to address methane emissions. It creates a new system of fees that would impose charges on oil and gas infrastructure owners if methane emitted from that infrastructure exceeds specified thresholds. Methane emissions are a significant problem for Alaska’s aging oil and gas infrastructure. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas causing steep increases in global temperatures.

The IRA will extend and create clean energy tax credits, including the existing tax credit for electricity produced from renewable resources, which has been a major benefit to the Solarize Anchorage, Fairbanks, Kenai, and Mat-Su programs. The IRA also creates a new tax credit that rural electric cooperatives like ours on the railbelt in Alaska can apply for to finance new clean energy generation facilities. This will make policies to require utilities to adopt renewable energy generation (like the Renewable Portfolio Standard) more financially achievable in the near term.

The IRA creates a Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to be funded at $27 billion over the next decade to better leverage private sector investment and community lenders to build wind, solar, electric vehicle, and energy efficiency projects at the community level. Of that money, $7 billion will go directly to state-operated Green Banks. The legislation to establish an Alaska state Green Bank will likely be re-introduced in Alaska in the 2023 legislative session. (Note that previous legislation proposed to put the Green Bank in the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, an agency that lacks transparency and accountability, so many groups opposed this.) With your help, we can ensure that a state Green Bank in a more trusted agency like the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation becomes a reality.
The transition to clean transportation is facilitated by a $4,000 consumer credit for lower/middle income individuals (i.e., couples making less than $300,000 and individuals $150,000 annually) to buy used electric vehicles and a $7,500 tax credit to buy new electric vehicles. We must advocate with our local utilities and governments to continue the rapid build-out of fast charging stations in Alaska.
With the passage of the IRA, there will be many programs and opportunities for individuals, homeowners, business owners, utilities, local governments, state agencies, Tribes, Native Corporations, and NGOs to save energy costs, decrease emissions, and more in Alaska. We need to work with our elected leaders to ensure that the benefits of the new legislation move forward with equity and at a speed that meets the moment of our climate crisis.

Onward!
The Alaska Center

Climate Action Plans are Community Care

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[cs_content][cs_element_section _id=”1″ ][cs_element_layout_row _id=”2″ ][cs_element_layout_column _id=”3″ ][cs_element_text _id=”4″ ][cs_content_seo]Let’s talk about the beloved Climate Action Plan, where everyone from artists, foragers, to bus drivers are climate action experts. At the intersection of immense natural disasters and a lack of systematic preparedness, Climate Action Plans (CAPs) provide a necessary opportunity for neighbors to create the solutions to a crisis they all face.
Every year, the climate crisis clarifies two things: we are collectively unprepared, and our definition of suffering is expanding. We know the thousands of dollars of damage to our homes and cars from the snow and ice. Neighbors are traumatized from the fire evacuations; their empty suitcases are still by the door. Some of us can still hear the rumble of a mudslide burying a part of town. Others are now buying inhalers because the smoke was that bad.
Preparing for a crisis is hard when you’re currently in multiple. However, in these moments, the people suffering have the solutions to the crises. CAPs remind us that we need not know all the answers. Together, we are the solution.
Since the early 2000s, tribal governments and cities across the state came together to create their own Climate Action Plans: Pedro Bay, Homer, Sitka, Anchorage, and Juneau. Fairbanks is next on the roster as their Borough is currently soliciting feedback to draft their Climate Action and Adaptation Plan. Fairbanks Borough residents are encouraged – now needed to join the CAAP Public Summit Event Saturday, August 13, from 10 am – 3 pm at the Borough Chambers. This summit is an opportunity to share the solutions residents need the Borough to implement.

More About Fairbanks’ CAAP >>>
Our leaders need to hear the breadth of the issues residents face. They need to see the wealth of ingenuity our communities have to offer. Without it, the CAAP will fall short.
For Alaskans outside of Fairbanks, you can support this momentum by ensuring we elect climate action champions in the Special, General, Midterm, and local Municipal elections. A CAP’s success relies heavily on climate action-oriented community and government leaders. On August 16, voters can ensure those leaders can help bring climate action to fruition. From voting to testimony, CAPs will require many forms of engagement to be successful. When we do this work together, the future looks bright. These are our communities and these should be our Climate Action Plans. Nothing for us without us.
The Alaska Center

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Simple Steps for Salmon Protection

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When the legislation creating a Wild Salmon Day for Alaska was considered in the Alaska State Legislature, we knew it was an important bill. Even if it is mainly a symbolic gesture of our collective goodwill toward the salmon that swim through the life of our Alaskan society and culture, it was a good bill because it was a simple bill.

At the same time, in hindsight, there is nothing simple about our relationship with salmon. Those who have relied on salmon and protected them for millennia might see the designation of a calendar day in honor of salmon as cheap, considering that it is integral to the existence of their people. There is also nothing terribly simple about the economic impact of wild salmon. Sport and commercial fishers view the same wild salmon run on often sharply divergent terms, and the management of these fish can raise all sorts of claims of political bias.
Wild Salmon Day, if anything, provides us with a point of reflection, and for that, it is crucial. We, who are so blessed to experience, eat, watch, hook, net, paint, write about, and otherwise contemplate these salmon, also are called upon to protect them. When it comes to protection, there is also a level of complexity; the simple answers are there but none are a fix-all.

We had great runs this summer in Bristol Bay, partly due to global warming trends increasing the freshwater food for juvenile salmon. While the salmon were flooding into Bristol Bay, catastrophic low returns have beset the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers. The trawl sector undoubtedly bears some responsibility for killing off thousands of Y/K bound salmon as bycatch. So too do the Area-M fishers. And beyond that, the causes are giant, terrifying, and vague: ocean warming, river warming, ocean acidification, competition from hatchery fish, ocean regime change? The answers to the questions on how we protect wild salmon should be clear, but they are manyfold.

We know these things: we need to keep voting the right people into office who value salmon and will push for policy to protect their habitat, ensuring that our salmon runs thrive in all parts of our state. We must respect Indigenous stewardship and sustainability practices as we work to protect our wild salmon from future harm. We must come together in community to celebrate and honor the resource.
We must work throughout the year to protect our salmon for future generations. It is that simple.

On August 10 in Anchorage and August 14 in Fairbanks, come together to celebrate Wild Salmon Day and learn about how you can use your voice in a multitude of ways to protect our salmon.

Now through August 16, you have the chance to vote for leadership that will protect our salmon. We have endorsed Mary Peltola in part because of her commitment to protecting our salmon. Learn more about our endorsements and how and where to vote this election.
Today until September 6 you have the opportunity to have your voice heard to ensure EPA protections and to Stop Pebble Mine once and for all.

The solutions to the myriad of salmon issues we face aren’t simple but the end goal is: Protecting our Salmon for generations to come.
The Alaska Center