Our Impacts

The forests of Southeast Alaska are a vital ecosystem for mitigating the oncoming effects of global climate change. The Tongass National Forest is referred to as the “Lungs of North America,” given the enormous amount of carbon stored and oxygen produced. The Seacoast Trust is a means of keeping these lungs intact, while improving the model for doing so.

The old approach to “conservation” does not work for our lands or our peoples. By eliminating resource use opportunities in protected areas, “locking up” tracts of wilderness increases tensions among those who live in or near these environments.

It not only denies millennia of sustainable use practices by Indigenous groups in the forests and waters, but creates regional pressure to oppose conservation strategies, seeding enmity among neighbors who might otherwise collaborate in common cause. We believe a better approach to land use and climate change is by empowering local communities to be just as invested in their health as distant donors, businesses, and environmentalists.

This is already emerging as the dominant investment paradigm in the region. After decades of logging on their lands, Sealaska is transitioning away from the industry, and prioritizing community and cultural use land management along with pursuing additional carbon sequestration projects.

The Seacoast Trust will enable roughly two million acres of Forest Service and Alaska Native corporation-owned lands to become aligned under community authority, creating positive community and environmental outcomes. Of those holdings, roughly one million acres are of old-growth forests, prime candidates for carbon sequestration that aligns with sustainable community, cultural, and recreational uses. Another half-million acres require improved forest management in order to allow for better carbon storage and habitat improvement for local subsistence use. The Seacoast Trust will support programs weaving Indigenous values into new approaches for resource management, ecological revitalization, and economic development across the entirety of Southeast Alaska’s 22 million acres.

With the principle $20 million committed, revenues of the first three to five years of the fund will go toward expanding on regional programs the SSP has already established. We want to take what is working and scale up.

Immediate impacts:

• Extension of SSP’s Community Catalyst program, financing our on-going efforts, and expanding positions in the communities of Metlakatla, Angoon, and Klukwan.

• Expansion of SSP’s Regional Catalyst program, funding on-going positions as well as additional initiatives focused on fisheries/ marine management, tribal engagement, and community health.

• Growth of the ongoing Indigenous Guardians program, a strategy for connecting tribal leaders with resource managers. With more funding, we plan on coordinating 1- 2 more positions in each community, and purchase essential equipment like boats.

• Expansion of the Community Forest Partnership program, which brings Indigenous knowledge and community priorities to federal management of the Tongass National Forest. With increased support, this program can expand to the villages of Klawock and Yakutat, and build capacity towards establishing Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas, similar to the model piloted in Canada.

A dependable source of project funding will enable long-term planning for SSP’s priority areas, including natural resource stewardship, regenerative tourism initiatives, food security, and renewable energy projects. These are immediate measures based on what we have demonstrated works for our region. But, the Seacoast Trust is intended as a long-term, intergenerational resource.

Future Impacts:

• More carbon deals that keep our forests standing and mitigate climate change, realizing the Tongass’s potential as the Lungs of North America.

• A decrease in conflicts among stakeholders over timber sales and logging.

• Foster healing and wellness for all the land and peoples of the Tongass through food security efforts, social justice, and preparation for the effects of climate change.

• Exporting expertise as the Tongass becomes a global model for Indigenous stewardship and sustainability.

• Helping people remain in their home communities, which entails stemming outflow migration from small towns to larger regional hubs. Keeping communities whole means making it possible for people to stay and prosper in rural Southeast Alaska.

• Increased sustainable employment opportunities for our communities in sectors like forest management, food security and stability, and regenerative tourism.

• More co-management agreements between Tribes and the National Forest Service over the Tongass, returning it to a place stewarded through Indigenous knowledge and values.

One hundred years from now, we will know the Seacoast Trust has succeeded if our forests and waterways are still intact, Indigenous peoples and cultures thrive, and an alternative path forward has been demonstrated to the world.