Critical Stretch of Nome River Protected: Alaska Arctic Wildlife Habitat Conserved

Nome is also growing. As the city expands its role as a strategic Arctic port and shipping hub, development pressure is increasing across the surrounding landscape. As sea ice retreats and new shipping routes open across the Arctic, the land surrounding Nome is no longer as remote as it once was — and the ecological corridors that wildlife depend on are increasingly at risk of fragmentation. Protecting intact western Alaska landscapes now, before development closes the option, is exactly the kind of urgent conservation work the Arctic demands. 

Indigenous Land Conservation Returns Access to Alaska Native Communities

For decades, portions of the Nome River corridor were locked behind private ownership tied to early 20th-century gold mining claims. Following the gold rush of 1899, more than 20,000 prospectors descended on Nome, staking claims across land that Alaska Native communities had relied on for thousands of years. The legacy of that era persisted long after the gold rush faded — creating barriers that interrupted generations of subsistence fishing, hunting, and gathering along one of the community’s most important waterways. 

With this Alaska Native conservation partnership, those barriers are gone. Sitnasuak Native Corporation, whose shareholders make up a significant portion of Nome’s population, now holds stewardship of the corridor as part of its existing land assets. The land will be managed in continuity with the surrounding watershed, ensuring both ecological integrity and uninterrupted access to the subsistence resources that are central to Alaska Native culture, food security, and identity. 

Arctic Land Conservation in a Rapidly Changing Landscape

The Arctic is one of Earth’s last intact ecosystems. And it is changing faster than almost anywhere else on Earth. Melting sea ice, industrial expansion, and shifting wildlife patterns are redefining the landscape and the challenges facing wildlife, communities, and conservation across the region. The Conservation Fund has been working across Alaska’s Arctic for years, protecting spawning streams, coastal corridors, migration routes, and the Indigenous communities whose futures are tied to healthy land and water. 

The Nome River project adds 14 miles and 1,700 acres to that legacy of Arctic wildlife habitat protection — land that will keep salmon running, wildlife moving, and communities connected to the places that have always sustained them.