Welcome to the Film Room

Please enjoy our collection of films that SEACC and our partners have created over the years. Each movie tells a different story about the resilience, resourcefulness, struggles and innovations in Southeast Alaska. Grab some popcorn, and learn more about this magnificent place and our communities.

Were you at the Roadless Rule Celebration and Potluck?! There was food, prizes, singalongs, shoutouts, slideshows, special guests, and, as always, great conversation.

After several years of hard work, we finally celebrated the reinstatement of the Roadless Rule on the Tongass!

Thank you to everyone who worked to restore those protections and who joined us on this special evening. We did it!

You already know renewable energy will be the foundation of Alaska’s next economy, lowering energy costs for Alaska consumers and providing many new jobs. But did you know the Alaskan legislature has a big opportunity to do something about it this year 2023? Check out this conversation on how the legislature can support and accelerate Alaska’s renewable economy by extending and funding the Alaska Renewable Energy Fund, enacting a Renewable Portfolio Standard for Railbelt electric utilities, and creating a Green Bank.

Speaking leaders and experts included AlexAnna Salmon, Petla Noden, Erin McKittrick, Donovan Russoniello, and Penny Gage. Meda Dewitt moderated the event.

See more information at 🔗 aknexteconomy.com

Juneau COP27 Meetup

On November 17, 2022, climate-oriented groups in Juneau — WECAN, 350 Juneau, AYEA, and SEACC — held a local event during the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) to address how they are combatting the climate crisis in Southeast Alaska.

The Juneau COP27 Meetup was held at Overstreet Park — aka The Whale — where a specific message was clear: Protecting old-growth forests is essential to avoiding the worst of climate change. The Biden administration should live up to its promises to #ProtectTheTongass by reinstating the Roadless Rule.

🎥: Connor Meyer

Voices From the Inside Passage Electric Cooperative.

Here’s how the Inside Passage Electric Cooperative (IPEC) provides clean salmon-safe hydropower for communities in Southeast Alaska.

Since 2008, the Renewable Energy Fund (REF) has invested $282 million, resulting in 95+ operational projects, $158M in matching funds, and offsetting 30 million gallons of diesel annually equal to $180,000,000 saved for rural communities and 336,000 tons of CO2 avoided for the planet in 2021 alone. But the REF is due to expire in 2023 without a legislative extension. The legislature needs to extend this critical program for another ten years and increase REF’s appropriation and funding ceiling, so it can invest at the scale our communities need. Alaska needs your help. Please join us in petitioning the House and Senate Finance Committees to support a bill extending the Renewable Energy Fund for another 10 years!

See seacc.org/REF.

The Climate and Energy Community Forum on Tuesday, Nov. 15, was a virtual discussion on the most important climate and energy issues of 2023. Here, we dive into two of our top policy priorities: the Renewable Energy Fund and the proposed Green Bank, and we want to make sure you’re up to speed on the impact these two policies will have on Southeast.

For more info, see 🔗 seacc.org/climate-community-forum

It’s time to invest in Southeast’s recreation economy.

Southeast Alaska attracts millions of visitors each year. Independent travelers have a light footprint and contribute the most value to our communities. Developing recreation infrastructure benefits locals and our small businesses.

See seacc.org/recreation.

Changing Perspectives on Mature and Old-Growth in the Tongass National Forest

On April 22, 2022 — Earth Day — President Biden signed an executive order to strengthen America’s forests, boost wildfire resilience, and combat global deforestation.

SEACC, in partnership with Alaska Wilderness League and Environment America, hosted a virtual panel on what is commonly referred to as Biden’s Earth Day Executive Order, discussing old-growth forest and its significance from cultural, scientific, and public land management perspectives.

Panelists included Wild Heritage Chief Scientist Dominick Dellsala, The Wilderness Society’s Alaska Senior Specialist Meda Dewitt, and Research Forester Kellen Nelson with the U.S. Forest Service.

Rally for the Tongass

The Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska is a natural treasure. It’s also:
– The vibrant homelands of the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian peoples,
– Home to more than 25% of the West Coast’s salmon, and
– Responsible for 44% of the carbon sequestration within the entire United States National Forest system.

Join Southeast Alaskans from across the Tongass and beyond in celebrating the beauty, diversity, economic vitality, and cultural vibrancy of the country’s largest national forest. Together we will raise our voices to applaud the Biden administration’s promise to reinstate the Roadless Rule — which will reinstate essential protections on the Tongass!

Thousands of Americans have spoken out over the last two months with their support. Please join us by submitting a comment to the United States Department of Agriculture — which oversees the Forest Service — today!

Thank you to Congressman Ruben Gallego, President of Organized Village of Kake Joel Jackson, and Executive Director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association Linda Behnken for speaking!

Co-hosting this Rally for the Tongass is Alaska Environment Action, Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, Alaska Wilderness League, Audubon Alaska, Center for Biological Diversity, Earthjustice, Environment America, Environmental Action, Native Movement, Natural Resources Defense Council, National Wildlife Federation, Sierra Club, Student Public Interest Research Groups, Washington Wild, The Wilderness Society, and Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network.

Roadless Rule

November 23, 2021, marks the official start date of the 60-day public comment period on the Biden administration’s promise to restore the National Roadless Rule to the Tongass National Forest. At SEACC, we’re encouraging Southeast Alaskans, supporters, and members of the public to submit comments to the Forest Service through seacc.org/roadless.

Why? We need your support to bolster Biden’s promise and restore essential protections — which are widely supported by our community — on more than 9 million acres of the Tongass.

Everyone has a reason to protect the Tongass. What’s yours?

Global Leaders, Alaska Impacts

On Earth Day, President Biden convened a Summit of Global Leaders to discuss climate issues and to announce the United States of America’s plans for addressing the climate emergency facing our planet. In this video, leaders and minds from around Alaska discussed what some of those plans and goals mean for Alaskans.

Virtual Press Conference

As America’s largest carbon sink and climate sanctuary, the Tongass National Forest has a critical role to play in sequestering and storing atmospheric carbon essential in slowing climate change, which is occurring at one of the planet’s fastest rates in Alaska. At a virtual press conference on March 31, 2021, Wild Heritage chief scientist Dr. Dominick DellaSala explains his team’s breaking new data, the role of the Tongass as a carbon champion, and the extent to which U.S. carbon emissions will increase if logging is allowed to proceed in carbon-dense forests — including roadless areas recently opened to industrial development through a rollback decision made late in the Trump Administration. Indigenous leader Joel Jackson, President of the Organized Village of Kake in Alaska, also shares why protections are critical for Alaska Native communities.

Climate Conversations: Biden’s Climate Cabinet

In this Feb. 10, 2021 Zoom webinar, SEACC Climate Organizer Matt Jackson discusses Biden’s climate-forward cabinet with guest experts from the Grand Camp of the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Alaska Native Sisterhood and the National Wildlife Federation.

Take action on climate here! 

 

The Tongass National Forest: Our Most Powerful Climate Solution

Join Sally Schlichting, Environmental Policy Analyst with the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, on a virtual tour of the Tongass in this webcast hosted by Oregon Wild on Feb. 3, 2021. This presentation features the fish, wildlife, and human communities that depend on the Tongass — and an exploration of how preserving it and other mature and old-growth forests is key to combating climate change.

Please, stand tall for the Tongass and take action today!

Blue Congress, Green Tongass

Tune in here to watch our webinar, held on Zoom on Jan. 21, 2021, the day after Inauguration Day, “Blue Congress, Green Tongass” about how the incoming Biden administration, the 117th Congress and this power shift could affect the Tongass National Forest. SEACC Executive Director Meredith Trainor hosted the conversation with featured guest Leah Donahey, Legislative Director for the Alaska Wilderness League.

Turn Out For The Tongass

Since 2001, the Roadless Rule has protected Southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest from development. Now, the Trump Administration, Alaska’s Congressional Delegation and Governor, and corporate interests are trying to undermine it to open vast swaths of irreplaceable old-growth temperate rainforest to clearcut logging and roadbuilding.

Please, stand tall for the Tongass and take action today!

Film & edit – Wild Confluence Media
Made possible by – SEACC.org & EarthJustice.org

Rock, Paper, Fish

Every year all five species of salmon return to Southeast Alaska’s Chilkat River to sustain the communities of Haines and Klukwan, as well as insatiable grizzly bears, hordes of fascinated tourists, and the world’s largest gathering of bald eagles. But now a modern day gold rush is underway in the mountains above the river’s headwaters, and locals are reckoning with the changes that could come with a hard-rock mine.

“Rock-Paper-Fish” offers a vivid look into the lives of Alaskans grappling with questions as immense as the place they call home. Due to the threat of industrial mining, the Chilkat has been named one of “America’s 10 Most Endangered Rivers of 2019” by the nonprofit American Rivers.

Take action today at Chilkat.org.  Filmed by Colin Arisman & Connor Gallagher. Produced by Wild Confluence Media & Nomad Island. Supported by Patagonia, Peak Design & Southeast Alaska Conservation Council

 

Irreparable Harm

Contamination from a mine could threaten a magnificent marine ecosystem and a Tlingit community’s way of life in Southeast Alaska.

Winner: Yale Environmental Film (Best Short Film), Alaska Film Awards (Best Environmental Film)

Official Selection: Wild & Scenic Film Festival, International Wildlife Film Festival, International Ocean Film Festival, Downstream Film Festival, Siskiyou Film Festival, Wasatch Mountain Film

Directed, Filmed and Edited by Colin Arisman and Connor Gallagher
Produced by Wild Confluence Media & Votiv Earth
In partnership with Southeast Alaska Conservation Council
Supported by Peak Design

Tongass Blueprint Project

We have a new vision for a wood products industry in Southeast Alaska, one that’s sustainable and locally-focused. The old model relies on federal subsidies to clearcut large acreages of old growth trees, many of which are loaded as raw, round logs onto foreign-flagged ships for foreign-markets.

We Eat Fish

Alaska’s 6,640 miles of coastline remain home to some of the cleanest waters and healthiest salmon runs left in the world. These resources, at the heart of our economy, culture, and way of life, are what make Alaska strong. Unfortunately, the regulations protecting them remain very weak — the weakest in the nation, in fact.

These regulations are determined in part by how much fish and seafood a state’s residents eat. Ignoring the lived reality of most Alaskans, the state has set this number outrageously low. If you want to stand up for Alaska’s clean water, safe seafood, and healthy communities, you can start by merely letting our officials know that “We Eat Fish!”

Water Is Life

Providing clean water and healthy habitat for chinook, coho, sockeye, chum, and pink salmon, as well as steelhead trout, ooligan, dungeness crab, and moose, the Stikine River is the heritage, the livelihood, and the future of thousands of Alaskans and British Columbians.

“To try to put a measure on why clean water is so important is hard to do, except that it is what this community is. It is what has allowed us to stay.” — Petersburg resident Karin McCullough

The Stikine is one of the wildest, most salmon-rich rivers on the planet. Several large scale, open-pit mines at the river’s headwaters stand to change the Stikine forever.

Learn more about the Stikine and what you can do to protect it here: seacc.org/our-work/stikine-river