To date the Fund has helped to conserve more than 300,000 acres of Alaska’s most extraordinary landscapes - from majestic forestlands to world-class fishing spots to rugged coastlines. Working with public and private partners throughout the state, we have helped to acquire and permanently protect land valued at more than $134 million.
While Alaska is blessed by an abundance of public land, access to that land is not guaranteed. Chugach State Park, located at the edge of Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city, has been impacted by the city’s rapid
expansion—right up to the park's boundaries. Along the western boundary of the park, immediately adjacent to suburban Anchorage, lies the 149-acre Near Point property. The property provides access to Near Point and to the North Fork of Campbell Creek. We're now trying to raise funds to transfer this property to Chugach State Park.
In 2003 the property was the location of a proposed antenna farm. After the community defeated that proposal, it was slated for residential development. The Basher Community Council unanimously passed a resolution endorsing The Conservation Fund’s purchase of the entire property and our transfer of the property to Chugach State Park. Alaska State Parks plans to work with the Basher Community Council and the public to design appropriate facilities on this property - so all may easily access and enjoy Chugach in the future.
In previous years, we've been successful in assisting local partners with their efforts to ensure access to Chugach. In 2007, we assisted The Great Land Trust, in partnership with the Alaska Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation, with the completion of a multi-year effort to secure public access to Rabbit Creek Valley, located within the park. Over the course of five years we had worked quietly with the various landowners involved to secure access to the valley. In partnership with the Great Land Trust, Alaska State Parks, the Alaska Legislature, the Rasmuson Foundation and ConocoPhillips, we raised the funds needed to purchase three properties totaling 320 acres, allowing park visitors to enjoy Rabbit Creek Valley for the first time in 20 years.
With hundreds of pristine rivers, lakes and streams, the southwest Alaska region abounds with natural resources, diverse habitats, world-class recreation spots and a rich culture and history. Covering an area the size of Washington state, this 40 million acre region supports a wide variety of fish and wildlife. Our Southwest Alaska Salmon Habitat Initiative, the largest land protection project of its kind, offers an exciting opportunity to help conserve one of the greatest natural landscapes in North America.
For more information about the initiative, click here.
Not far from Fairbanks, more than 1,500 sandhill cranes live among rich wetlands. But suburban development has steadily diminished this habitat, leaving the cranes with fewer places to nest. Through our green infrastructure workshop, we helped launch the Chena Flats Greenbelt Project, a partnership with the North American Wetlands Conservation Council and the state trails grant programs that aims to ring the Chena Flats community with a greenbelt—restoring wetlands and creating new room for wildlife and recreation. Already, we have protected more than 420 acres of valuable habitat.
Internationally recognized for the importance of its wetlands, Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, at the tip of the Alaskan peninsula contains one of the largest eelgrass beds in the world. Threatened Steller's eider and more than 90 percent of the world's Pacific brant population feed on eelgrass here in fall and winter. Emperor geese, caribou, sea otter, brown bear and harbor seal are also found here.
In 2008, The Fund and its partners protected more than 12,500 acres of wetlands on the Alaska Peninsula. The area covers more than 100 miles of Pacific Ocean coastline and over 200 miles of fish streams and rivers that teem with five species of Pacific salmon. In 1999 The Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, in partnership with us, donated a nearly 8,500-acre addition to the refuge. Our decade of conservation efforts has transferred a total of 71,511 acres to the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge Complex.
The waters of Southwest Alaska, a largely untamed expanse spanning 40 million acres, provide spawning grounds for all five species of Pacific salmon which nourish bald eagles, brown bears—and local residents. Over the past decade, we have protected more than 94,000 acres of critical salmon habitat in this corner of the state.
Most recently, we teamed with Aleknagik Natives Limited, the Bristol Bay Native Corporation, federal and state agencies, outdoor industry companies and local businesses to secure a conservation easement on more than 20,000 acres of wetland within Wood-Tikshik State Park, the country’s second-largest state park. The agreement preserves the entire length of the four-mile-long Agulowak River and 42 miles of shoreline along lakes Aleknagik and Nerka. A major grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation provided key funding for the project.
Through its Southwest Alaska Wild Salmon Initiative, the Fund and its partners aim to safeguard 400,000 acres of the region's most vulnerable salmon habitat, native lands and recreation areas in the next decade.
The Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve hosts the most spectacular concentration of bald eagles in North America. During late fall and early winter, up to 3,000 bald eagles gather to feed on a late run of chum salmon in the Chilkat River. This wildlife spectacle is readily accessible from the town of Haines, attracting tourists and photographers from around the world. The Conservation Fund, with financial support from the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund and Alaska State Parks, purchased and protected a number of key tracts totaling more than 100 acres in the heart of the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve.
In 2007, we worked with the National Park Service to protect 80 acres of the traditional migration route for hundreds of thousands of caribou.
Point Possession, just 15 miles southwest of Anchorage, is a magnificent piece of wild Alaska. Its waters shelter major runs of red and silver salmon, and it is exceptional habitat for moose, brown and black bear, and tundra swans. In partnership with the Point Possession Native Group and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, we helped secure 4,247 acres of the point, which lies within a designated wilderness area in Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.
Click here for more information about the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge on the U.S. Fish & Wildlife's website.
At the confluence of the Kenai and Killey rivers lies a popular fishing spot called Wally's Hole. Here a cautious autumn angler can view an ancient annual ritual: huge brown bears snatching salmon as thousands of the fish struggle to reach their upstream spawning grounds. Support from the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund enabled us to purchase a quarter-mile stretch of brown bear habitat along the Kenai adjacent to Wally's Hole. The property was turned over to the state of Alaska for long-term stewardship.
With generous funding from the Richard King Mellon Foundation, The Conservation Fund acquired 37,360 acres at Morzhovoi Bay for inclusion in the Alaska Peninsula National Wildlife Refuge. The bay includes dozens of salmon spawning streams and is important to brown bears as well as migratory birds.
A 368-unit subdivision planned for the Peters Creek valley near Anchorage would have had a severe impact on wildlife habitat. At the request of Alaska State Parks, the Fund assisted the Richard King Mellon Foundation in buying the 718-acre Peters Creek property and donating it to Chugach State Park.
As the critical first project of The Conservation Fund’s Coastal Alaska Initiative, more than 830 acres of rugged Cape Bingham cliffs and 12 miles of pristine coastline that is filled with sprawling colonies of raucous sea lions, harbor seals and otters. Cape Bingham represents the crowning achievement in an extraordinary $5 million Alaska conservation campaign initiated by the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, a remarkable commitment that motivated other donors and enabled us to leverage the foundation’s charitable investment.
Windham Bay, at the heart of Tongass National Forest, is a unique combination of lush rainforest and fresh and saltwater estuaries that create a bird and whale-watcher's paradise. With support from Too Far, a California-based publishing company, the Fund and the USDA Forest Service added more than 100 acres of old-growth forest to the Tongass National Forest's Chuck River Wilderness, which safeguarded stands of Sitka that harbor bald eagle, brown bear, flying squirrels and moose.
At the Fund we help save wild havens: large, natural spaces for wildlife to be exactly that—wild. Your gift ensures that wildlife, like this bear cub, has the habitat it needs to thrive.
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Backpacker magazine's Editor in Chief, Jonathan Dorn, flew deep into into Alaska's backcountry with The Fund's Alaska State Director, Glenn Elison, for "an adventure of a lifetime" in an area where we are working to protect salmon habitat. Watch a short video of the adventure here:
Click here to watch full size.
Click here for a photo gallery on Backpacker's Web site.
Click here to learn about the lands, trails and historic sites we've helped protect through our partnership with the National Park Service.
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Arlington, Virginia 22209-2156
Phone: 703-525-6300
Fax: 703-525-4610
Email: postmaster@conservationfund.org
