The Environmental program provides training activities, educational assistance, and coordination of statewide projects. The program continues to contribute to the capacity growth within Alaska tribes and provide a wide variety of services to assist tribes as they address local and regional environmental issues with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) funded projects.
Indian General Assistance Program (IGAP)
The Indian General Assistance Program (IGAP) grant was established by the EPA to provide tribal governments with funding to develop capacity to manage their own environmental programs tailored to the individual tribe’s needs. Through the IGAP grant, the Environmental team provides education and outreach for Southeast Alaska tribes; organizes and hosts an annual Southeast Environmental Forum and quarterly teleconferences; and creates networks and work groups among the Southeast Alaska tribes to build on each other’s resources and expertise.
- Climate Change Adaptation Plan
- Climate Change Adaptation Plan Template for Tribes
- Climate Change Action Plan – Socioeconomic Impacts of Climate Change in Southeast Alaska
Southeast Alaska Tribal Toxins Network (SEATT)
NLR and other Southeast Alaska tribes have formed a partnership, known as the Southeast Alaska Tribal Toxins Network (SEATT), to monitor plankton known to cause harmful algal bloom (HAB) events such as paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP). The goal of SEATT is to create a reduced risk management plan for shellfish harvesting by our tribal citizens and communities.
Southeast Environmental Forum & Teleconferences
The annual Southeast Environmental Forum brings together Southeast tribes to learn about current tribal environmental priorities, receive training and information, and to network with other environmental professionals throughout the state. In addition, the Environmental team hosts quarterly teleconference calls to provide information and updates on environmental projects and issues that may be of concern to tribal interests.
Transboundary Watershed Protection
Northwest British Columbia (Canada) is experiencing a modern day gold rush, and several operating and proposed mines are located within the headwaters of our region’s largest salmon-producing rivers that flow into our ancestral homelands of Southeast Alaska. Tlingit & Haida works on water quality monitoring to detect pollution, as well as governance efforts at the local, national, and international levels to secure binding and enforceable protections for the rivers that feed us.
State & Tribal Response Program (STRP)
The State & Tribal Response Program (STRP) is designed to give tribes funding to identify, inventory, assess, and develop a plan responding to potentially contaminated sites (land or water) that are presently too unhealthy for safe usage, but may be used again through rehabilitation. To learn more about this program, click here.
Brownfields/Contaminated Sites Public Record
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Brownfields Program
According to the EPA, “a brownfield site is real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.”