SEACC SOUTHEAST ALASKA CO N S E R V AT I O N CO U N C I L
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2020
2020
IMPACT REPORT
Photo by Michele Cornelius
2207 JORDAN AVE. JUNEAU, AK 99801 907.586.6942 SEACC.org
2020 is SEACC’s 50th anniversary!
2020 was slated for gathering together, swapping stories in person, and basking in the warmth of each other’s company as we celebrated five decades of SEACC with you! Instead, as COVID-19 changed all of our lives, we changed our plan but not our mission: we have celebrated with you from afar and focused on how to not only endure 2020 but to make the best of it. Welcome to our 2020 Impact Report, look what has been accomplished with your help:
WE HOSTED OR PARTICIPATED IN 16 DIGITAL EVENTS INCLUDING:
• 5 Hunker Down for Climate Change art workshops ° Juneau, Haines/Klukwan, Sitka, Ketchikan, Petersburg ° 146 Emails to Sen. Murkowski urging her to act on climate
Meredith
• 3 Special Donor Events
• A Tele-Town Hall, held in partnership with the National Wildlife Federation
• 50th Anniversary SEACC Virtual Trivia Night
° Double-billed book event with Hank Lentfer and Russell Heath
&
Conor
° John Schoen’s book release with Audubon
• 2 Tongass-related book events
Heather
• 2 Roadless Rule Webinars
LAUNCHED OUR
BRAND-NEW
WEBSITE!
Our Inside Passage Waters program, with amplification in partnership with the National Wildlife Federation (NWF)
drove a staggering 20,172 community advocacy actions.
Joined our 1st NWF
Affiliate Chief’s Meeting, the virtual Women in Conservation Leadership conference, and the Annual Meeting, where we passed two resolutions: • One resolution demanding that the Government of British Columbia protect their shared watersheds with Southeast Alaska, Idaho, Montana, and Washington from mining operations washing mine runoff downstream. • The other resolution insisted that the US Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) keep the National Roadless Rule standing on the Tongass.
It shouldn't be easier to pollute
water than to protect it! We advocated for an administrative Tier 3 waters designation process:
150 596
Letters to Alaska Legislators Petition Signers
�
In response to the proposed ConstantinePalmer mine... •
328 letters sent by the community to DOWA Metals and Mining, a 49% partner in the proposed mine.
•
56 NEWS STORIES & mentioned 77 TIMES
SEACC staff were quoted in
18,920 letters sent from active members of the National WIldlife Federation.
Worked with 7 Tribal Councils to join a sign-on letter directed to British Columbia Premier Horgan asking that BC’s use of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act be applied to downstream communities in Alaska and circulated it to Southeast communities for signatures.
Our Tongass Forest Program
team helped supporters take 1,925 actions on the Tongass this year. They include: •
755 letters to USDA Secretary
•
643 letters to the US Forest Service
•
208 public comments
Sonny Perdue urging that the Roadless Rule be kept on the Tongass.
(USFS) to pause the Alaska Roadless Rulemaking progress due to COVID-19.
defending the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) from severe rollbacks in scope and effectiveness.
Freedom of Information Act request used to access 267,000 of public comments on the Roadless Rule changes to the Tongass: 96% of comments from across the country requested the “No Action Alternative,� which would maintain the National Roadless Rule on the Tongass. Only 1% of comments were pro-rollback.
Conducted or supported
8 scientific studies including a project in partnership with Friends of Admiralty Island, sampling the Greens Creek Delta for metals and stable isotopes of lead and zinc to compare metals present in archaeological samples from the area to contemporary mine waste metals and isotopes.
The “Stand Tall for the Tongass� video funded by The Alaska Wilderness Society and produced by Wild Confluence Media gained 8,800 views!
Issues we worked on,
SEACC HELPED DRIVE NEWS COVERAGE
OF THE ROADLESS RULE 105 TIMES IN 2020 which was reported on
in total, were mentioned
253 TIMES!
in outlets from
the Guardian, CNN, The Hill and Politico to local news.
We came together with a larger community to partner with organizations and businesses such as...
OVER 19K LETTERS sent in an effort to protect the health of the Chilkat River!
1,925 ACTIONS in the name of the Tongass!
• The Alaska Center
• Lynn Canal Conservation
• The Alaska Wilderness League
• National Parks Conservation Association
• Audubon
• National Wildlife Federation
• The Chilkat Valley Working Group 8 STUDIES to measure effects of the Greens Creek Mine!
• Defenders of Wildlife
• Earthjustice • Friends of Admiralty Island
• Native Movement • Patagonia • Sierra Club • Sitka Conservation Society • Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission (SEITC) • Wild Confluence Media • The Wilderness Society
Partnering with Earthjustice
and other partners to take the Forest Service to court over the Prince of Wales Landscape Level Analysis on their failure to meet the requirements of NEPA and won!
CANADIAN GOVERNMENTS urged to protect watersheds shared with Alaska, Idaho, Washington, and Montana!
PROTECTED the trees of No Name Bay!
In August, SEACC prevailed in a
7-YEAR-OLD LAWSUIT against the State of Alaska Dept. of Natural Resources and Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority over Daax’unáa (No Name Bay)!
STOPPED the Twin Mountain Timber Sale!
SEACC is growing!
2019 SEACC Board Retreat
More and more people are rallying behind the Tongass and the waters of the Inside Passage to shine a light on the dangers that face this breathtaking and unique region.
Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion are important values to each person who works at SEACC and this year we have taken more deliberate, active steps to incorporate these values into our work.
• In 2019, a staff-organized Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee was formed from internal interest, but in 2020 this committee became an all-staff, weekly effort to read more about these issues and review our habits, organizational structures, and policies to see where our efforts to be an anti-racist organization can be further developed. • Both SEACC board and staff participated in a decolonization training with Native Movement where we learned how to better identify the inequitable practices common to any organization that has operated for 50 years. The SEACC board also participated in a “Decolonizing Conservation” webinar led by The Wilderness Society as part of its fall board meeting.
The SEACC supporter list grew nearly 50%
from 5,084 to 7,496 supporters!
167 50-50
200+
NEW DONORS IN 2020
DONORS
For our 50th anniversary campaign, raising $50,000 for the next 50 years of SEACC, 167 people have donated so far and we’re not done yet! There’s still time to join the growing number of people who want to keep a robust, regional conservation council representing them, the Tongass, and the Inside Passage for decades to come. 2020 also saw over 200 first-time supporters donate to SEACC’s mission and work, including members from 3 new states! In total 897 people have donated to SEACC in the last 12 months.
Despite our lack of in-person events and the limitations imposed by a year of quarantines and social distance, our community still showed up when called and 69 volunteers aided us in our work over the computer, over the phone, and on the page. From all of us at SEACC, and the five decades of community supporters behind us,
THANK YOU to our volunteers!
Volunteer Michelle Tagaban
8973 TOTAL 2020 DONATIONS +
NEW STATES