Advocating for Southeast Alaska Waters
Our Clean Water Program works with Southeast Alaska communities to develop solutions for protecting, managing, benefiting from, and celebrating local waterways.
Photo by: Susan Stephens
Photos by: Michele Cornelius (top) Connor Gallagher (below)
The Waters of Southeast Alaska
Southeast Alaska is as much water as it is land. Here, the interconnected web of the Inside Passage is home to lush wild salmon rivers and immense watersheds that feed the trees of the Tongass and the oceans of the world. It is a place teeming with biodiversity — from whales and wolves, to eagles, deer and bears, to salmon and human communities.
There is wisdom here too, connection, balance, and resilience — lessons learned through millennia of change and adaptation.
Yet, balance is becoming more difficult in a world of rapid change and large-scale resource extraction.
What We Do
Our Clean Water Program supports Southeast Alaskan communities in having a strong voice, developing solutions for managing, protecting, and benefiting from local waterways, and learning from local knowledge about what works for maintaining balance in this place.
What’s happening with Southeast Alaska waters?
Join us: Cleaner Fuel Brighter Future Town Hall Oct. 8
Join us on October 8, starting at 5 p.m. at the Juneau Arts & Culture Center or online via Zoom — the program will start at 5:30 with a panel discussion on the heavy fuel oil pollution issue, impacts, and the importance of protecting Alaska’s marine waters. After...
Behind the Scenes of the SeaBank Chronicles with Beth Short-Rhoads
What happens when you mix snorkeling, an economics lesson, and marine fuel regulations? A splashy new episode of the SeaBank Chronicles in which SEACC and the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust team up to deliver the solution to a more sustainable cruise industry. If...
Cleaner marine fuel roundup: Events and news worth knowing
Even as the temperatures cool, the cruise season continues, with ships expected well into October. Another day, another water quality violation — that’s what the data from the past couple of years shows. In late August, we released data showing hundreds of violations...
Photo by: Alex Crook
Southeast Watersheds
Our work is currently focused on three transboundary watersheds: the Chilkat | Jilkaat Heeni (near Klukwan and Haines), the Stikine | Shtax’héen (near Wrangell and Petersburg), and the Unuk | Junak (near Ketchikan, Saxman, and Metlakatla).
We have selected these rivers because they are all vitally important to the survival of wild Pacific salmon and nearby communities, they are threatened by upstream mining activity, and there are still opportunities to take protective action in each case.
Click the graphics below to learn more about these three rivers and how to protect them.
Chilkat • Jilkaat Heeni
Stikine • Shtax’héen
Unuk • Junak
Chilkat River
Stikine River
Unuk River
