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?
SEACC poetry contest!
Write a poem including the waters of Southeast Alaska by theme, concept, image, or metaphor, and send it to SEACC!
5 Things You Can Do Today to Protect Alaskan Waters and Communities
Photo by Jeremy Lavender of Lavender Peaks Photography These are challenging times. As we’re all doing our best to keep up with what’s unfolding in our country and to remain healthy during this time that is so demanding of our energy, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed or...
Speak up for Alaska’s Water Quality at Triennial Review
Now is your chance to add your voice to Alaska's water quality management for the next three years! Here is some information and talking points about the 2021-2023 Triennial Review of Alaska Water Quality Standards. A public hearing will be held from 4-6 p.m....
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
