Alaska Wildlife Alliance
In Their Own Words
Who We Are
Alaska is one of the few places on Earth where wildlife roam wild lands. The state is home to a unique and spectacular array of aquatic and terrestrial wildlife species, and our constitution recognizes that fish, forests, wildlife, grasslands, and other replenishable resources belong to Alaskans and are to be maintained in perpetuity.
Founded in 1978, Alaska Wildlife Alliance (AWA) is not only the oldest Alaska-based grassroots organization working to conserve our wildlife, but we’re also the only statewide, Alaska-founded 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated solely to the protection of Alaska’s wildlife. As such, we are uniquely placed to serve as a voice for the state’s wildlife, safeguard their abundance, biodiversity, and habitat, and advocate for science-based, ethical wildlife management.
Our Mission
Alaska Wildlife Alliance is committed to the protection of Alaska’s wildlife for its intrinsic value, as well as for the benefit of present and future generations of Alaskans. We advocate for healthy ecosystems, scientifically and ethically managed to protect our wildlife in an increasingly dynamic world.
The Work
Voices for Wildlife
Alaska’s wildlife doesn’t have a voice in the decision-making processes that directly affect them. We engage with the public to rally a collective voice for wildlife, bringing the interests of species to the management table. The Alaska Wildlife Alliance can also be your voice for promoting an ethical, ecosystem approach to wildlife management, ensuring that wildlife populations are sustainably managed for future generations to enjoy. Together, it is our responsibility to be the voices for wildlife and influence favorable decisions.
The Goals: Promote Ethical Management Practices, Encourage Public Participation in the Decision-Making Process, Establish Representation on the Alaska Board of Game, Protect Habitat
Endangered Species Recovery
We establish robust, grassroots strategies to recover Alaska’s Threatened and Endangered Species, focusing on a few species at a time to ensure we’re successful. Learn more about these projects below, and donate to help us support the species who need it most.
Climate Adaptation
Developing a novel, frontline adaptation program in Alaska that sustains biodiversity in a rapidly changing climate.
Alaska Wildlife Alliance has contributed to the development of the Resist, Accept, Direct (RAD) framework, which lays out three choices for communities and agencies to guide their climate adaptation planning. In contrast to other climate adaptation approaches (e.g., Climate-Smart, Open Standards, Scenario Planning, or Structured Decision Making) that are open-ended, RAD carves up the decision space into three action-oriented bins. The 2021 revision of the National Fish, Wildlife, and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy has endorsed RAD as a progressive approach. The National Park Service is also promoting RAD as a “framework that encourages natural resource managers to consider strategic, forward-looking actions, rather than structure management goals based on past conditions.”
Note From Destination: Wildlife
In researching an article on wolves a few years back, I came across a small subspecies living on and around the islands of Alaska’s Inside Passage called the Alexander Archipelago Gray Wolf. Getting any information about them was like trying to find Bigfoot. Conflicting eyewitness accounts, wildly divergent statistics, outright gaslighting, and a mysterious, seemingly knowledgeable email from an unidentified source were all part of the process. Does the wolf exist? “Experts” told me that “thousands of the blood-thirsty creatures are even now overrunning the forests and decimating black-tail deer populations”, killing at will, for sport! On the same day, I was informed by another expert that there are no Alexander Archipelago wolves left, zero, Period. The entire population had been killed by hunters and wolf vigilantes. Both voices were absolutely insistent that their information was the only correct information. The whole process gave me an obsession to find the truth and 2) a fascination with both wolves and Alaska.
Alaska is a huge state with huge stories. Spread across 586,412 sq miles, its diverse ecoregions include Boreal and Rainforest, Coastal wetlands, Karst Caves, Sea ice, Tundra, and more, each home to an even more amazing, rare, wonderful, and vital array of land, air and marine wildlife, and a passionate, hardy population living their lives which are, by continental standards, challenging at best.
I was first introduced to the Alaska Wildlife Alliance through their work protecting Alaska’s endangered species through habitat protection. Wilderness and harsh conditions have not stopped special interests, sometimes including locals, from pursuing Alaska’s natural richness, mostly to its detriment and possible destruction. Alaska Wilderness Alliance is a bulwark of tireless common sense, science, law, and perseverance in the fight to preserve this unique and vital land and species, including the Alexander Archipelago Wolf.
