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
February 17, 2026 document

Alaska Letter Opposing Proposed Offshore Drilling Plan

Groups and individuals from across Alaska to express alarm and strong opposition to the proposal by the Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management (BOEM) to open nearly all federal waters off Alaska’s coasts — nearly 1 billion acres — to fossil fuel extraction under the 11th national offshore drilling plan.

Photos of Caribou taken in the Western Arctic in and around the Teshekpuk Lake area for Earthjustice. (Kiliii Yuyan for Earthjustice)
February 17, 2026 Press Release

Lawsuit Challenges Massive Oil and Gas Sale Over Harms to Western Arctic Public Lands and the Climate

Vast natural areas long protected from extraction will now be offered to oil companies for drilling

February 17, 2026 document

Western Arctic: Amended and Supplemented Complaint

The Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Earth U.S., represented by Earthjustice, are challenging the lease sale and the underlying management plan, or Integrated Activity Plan, that opens 18.5 million acres within the 23-million-acre Reserve to potential oil and gas drilling and infrastructure. The groups filed an amended and supplemented complaint in Alaska’s...

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