Mission: To preserve outstanding wildlife and wild public lands and waters in Alaska for future generations; to coordinate with organizations and businesses through national campaign strategies and grassroots education to assure lasting protection for Alaska’s national public lands and waters. By speaking with a united voice, we demonstrate that Americans from all walks of life are dedicated to keeping Alaska wild.
What is the Alaska Coalition: The Alaska Coalition, a project of Alaska Wilderness League, is a partnership of nearly 1,000 groups from the conservation, sporting, labor, religious and business communities that has for more than 30 years worked together to safeguard Alaska’s public lands and waters - from the verdant tundra of the Arctic to the lush temperate rainforest of the Tongass National Forest.
In the spring of 2007, Alaska Wilderness League took on the responsibility of coordinating and facilitating the activities of the national Alaska Coalition. This integration enhances the broader conservation community’s grassroots capacity to protect Alaska’s wild places. The League and its staff now serve as the coordinators for the national Coalition as well as liaisons to state based coalitions.
Our member organizations and businesses work together with our regional organizers to build support in Congress by urging their elected officials to pass wilderness legislation concerning Alaska. Ultimately, we hope to add the 1.5 million-acre coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge to our nation’s wilderness preservation system, to conserve and restore key areas in the Tongass National Forest, to protect special places in the Western Arctic within the National Petroleum Reserve -Alaska, and to keep the sensitive waters of the Polar Bear Seas—the Beaufort and Chukchi—off the North Slope safe from oil and gas development.
Some highlights for March:
v We’re really excited to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge this December (and throughout the year) and would love your help. Please see below for more information on activities that you can participate in and sign onto a letter to President Obama asking him to work toward formal Wilderness designation for the Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge. If interested, please send anna (at) alaskawild.org your organization/business name, city, state and name of a contact person.
v We still have lots of free videos on the Tongass National Forest, the Arctic Refuge and the National Petroleum Reserve- Alaska and other materials (brochures, postcards, etc.) free for your use. If you’re interested in receiving these videos and other materials to share with your members, customers or employees, please email me at: anna (at) alaskawild.org
v Know an organization or business who might be interested in joining the Alaska Coalition? Please have them sign up here!
