Kodiak Island National Wildlife Refuge, AK

Alaska's Kodiak Island National Wildlife Refuge is the scene of a continuing conservation success story. In 1995, more than 210,000 acres of high-priority wildlife habitat were protected through a partnership between The Conservation Fund and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, which secured Exxon Valdez oil spill restoration funds to purchase critical inholdings from the Natives of Kodiak.

With the Kodiak land agreements, the Fund brokered a series of complex solutions to a looming crisis. The stage was set in 1941 with the creation of the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge, a haven for rich wildlife populations such as the Kodiak brown bear, the world's largest land carnivore, as well as hundreds of nesting bald eagles and millions of Pacific salmon. Thirty years later, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 gave Kodiak's Native corporations title to 340,000 acres of refuge lands - and unintentionally pitted the economic future of Alaskans against the refuge and its wildlife.

The clear intent of the Settlement Act was to give Alaska's Natives the means to economic self-sufficiency. Yet, driven by financial hardship, Kodiak's Native corporations faced a painful choice: "We had to either develop our land assets in ways that would harm the bears' habitat or continue locked in poverty," explained Ralph Eluska, president of Akhiok-Kaguyak, Inc.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service teamed with the Fund to head off potential development of critical habitat while helping Kodiak's Native corporations achieve the economic security intended by the Settlement Act. More than $86 million in funds from the Exxon Valdez oil spill restoration account were sought to purchase Native inholdings, thereby safeguarding vulnerable lands and ensuring economic stability.

In 1995, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt signed agreements negotiated by the Fund to purchase critical lands from three Native corporations. "This agreement culminates more than a decade of hard work and hope of our people to find a win-win solution of our refuge inholdings," said Eluska. In addition to protecting habitat, the agreements protect the viability of rural Alaskan life. As Emil Christiansen, president of Old Harbor Native Corporation, noted, "We make our livelihood from the quality of the resources, just like the bears do."

Since 1995, the Fund has continued to acquire vulnerable refuge inholdings along the Karluk and Sturgeon rivers. The Karluk River, considered the crown jewel of Kodiak, supports the world's highest density of brown bears and legendary runs of steelhead, king, red and silver salmon. The Sturgeon River is located at the southwest end of Kodiak Island and is one of the most productive salmon rivers on the island.

Lead partners in the protection of Kodiak Island include the Richard King Mellon Foundation, the Orvis Company, the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, the Camp Fire Conservation Club, the Kodiak Brown Bear Trust, the Weeden Foundation, the National Rifle Association and the Dallas Ecological Foundation.