Our Work
Cook Inletkeeper is a community-based nonprofit organization that combines advocacy, education and science toward its mission to protect Alaska’s Cook Inlet watershed and the life it sustains. Inletkeeper’s monitoring and science work builds credibility with scientists and resource managers, its education and advocacy efforts enhance stewardship and citizen participation, and together, these efforts translate into Inletkeeper’s ability to effectively ensure a vibrant and healthy Cook Inlet watershed.
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT > > > Cook Inletkeeper acknowledges that Dena'ina, Alutiiq and Sugpiaq people of Alaska's South-Central region have been in community here long before the occupations of settler culture, past and present. Sacred relationships to traditional lands and ways of life endure to this day and are essential matters of any developing environmental or economic solution for Alaska's future generations. Each of Cook Inletkeeper's public events and campaigns are an opportunity to honor the people that came before us and are an invitation to be part of an inclusive story of Cook Inlet moving forward. Learn more about the principles of "decolonization" and a "just transition", Here >>> Indigenous Environmental Network.
We are a water planet, and we are a water people. Water covers over 70% of our Earth, and water comprises roughly 60% of our body weight. Cook Inletkeeper believes clean water is a fundamental human right. And while we all have a right to clean water, we have a corresponding obligation to protect it for current and future generations.
Healthy fish and wildlife habitats translate into healthy human habitat, and they support a full range of ecosystem services, such as water filtration, flood mitigation, and food chain productivity, to name but a few. While these ecosystem services are priceless, natural resource economists have estimated their value at trillions of dollars worldwide. Cook Inletkeeper recognizes healthy habitat as a vital strand in the ecological fabric that supports our families, our communities and our economies.
Successful local producers and fishers connect people to the land, our water and our resources. We see examples of success in our wild fisheries, and in some of our agricultural sectors. But there is clearly a huge amount of growth potential for Alaskans to be successful in producing food and other goods that will feed and sustain our communities far into the future.
Inletkeeper’s targeted energy strategies include aggressive legal, scientific and technical advocacy, effective citizen education and organizing, persuasive media outreach, and thoughtful pro-worker, pro-community messages.
