Alaska Office
Western Arctic. (Kiliii Yuyan for Earthjustice)
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
