Regional Office

Alaska Office

Western Arctic. (Kiliii Yuyan for Earthjustice)

(907) 277-2500
Anchorage, AK

(907) 586-2751
Juneau, AK

akoffice@earthjustice.org

Media Inquiries

Elizabeth Manning
Public Affairs and Communications Strategist
emanning@earthjustice.org

Legal Assistance Inquiries

Contacto de Prensa

Robert Valencia
Estratega de Comunicaciones y Asuntos Públicos Hispanos/Latinos
rvalencia@earthjustice.org

Since 1978, our Alaska regional office has fought destructive oil and gas drilling, mining, and logging that threatens the region’s communities, lands, waters, and wildlife.

Our Impact

Alaska is home to irreplaceable diversity of peoples, wildlife, and ecosystems. It includes rich Alaska Native cultures dating back millennia, the only Arctic region in the U.S., and the Tongass National Forest.

Earthjustice, in coordination with our clients and allies, defends the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Arctic Ocean, and Western Arctic from fossil fuel development, as well as opposes industry efforts to log and build roads in Alaska’s old-growth forests and wilderness.

We are committed to representing those who oppose unlawful and ill-advised mining in the vast expanse of Alaska and British Columbia and are battling some of the region’s worst hard rock and coal mine proposals.

In this work, the office represents a diverse mix of organizations and allies, including conservation groups, community organizations, and many Alaska Native Tribes who have, for millennia, relied on Alaska’s lands and waters for their way of life.

Highlights of past successes include:

  • Overturning a Trump executive order opening the vast majority of the Arctic Ocean to oil and gas drilling
  • Defeating a Bush administration action exempting the Tongass National Forest from the national Roadless Rule
  • Enjoining countless old-growth Tongass timber sales in lawsuits over a span of more than 30 years
  • Protecting the Arctic from development’s harm, including the Western Arctic’s most sensitive wildlife habitat near Teshekpuk Lake
  • Winning protections for Alaska’s ocean ecosystems and marine animals, including Steller sea lions
  • Forcing substantial reform of gold placer mining practices throughout Interior Alaska through a successful litigation campaign
  • Defeating a permit for a proposed mine that would have released toxic tailings into the waters of Misty Fjords National Monument

Recent News
Sunlight breaks through the lush understory of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest.
June 23, 2025 Press Release

Tongass Defenders Blast the Trump Administration’s Rollback of Roadless Rule Protections on America’s Largest Forest

Allowing logging and roadbuilding on now protected lands in the Tongass National Forest is a deeply unpopular action that poses grave harm to the forest

Three caribou walk across a marsh of water and green grass.
June 18, 2025 Press Release

Earthjustice Statement on Trump Administration Plan to Open Most of the Western Arctic to Oil and Gas Drilling

The public has just two weeks to comment on an illegal drilling plan that would destroy ecologically sensitive areas and deepen the climate crisis

June 13, 2025 Press Release

Ninth Circuit Deals Setback to Willow Oil Project in Alaska

Interior must reconsider the project after court concludes approval violated the law

Features