Youth Work to Protect Local Resources

This school year Alaska youth are on a mission: to defend wild Alaskan salmon and promote Real Food in their communities.

"We're not the last ones here, and we're not the first one's here. We can't use everything up!"

National Wildlife Federation’s Alaska Youth for Environmental Action program held a Youth Project Planning Summit this fall to bring teens together and help them learn about issues affecting salmon and food in Alaska.

Teens learned from each other how issues affect their communities differently. Topics ranged from mining (especially Chuitna Coal mine and Pebble mine) to school lunches and from subsistence to local agriculture.

"I was most impacted by learning the differences in how other Alaskan get their food compared to how I get mine" said Ruby Steedle, 15, from Juneau.

“The thing I learned was how bad the salmon are in trouble,” said Jaymes Kelly, 14, from Pilot Station.

Back home in their communities, AYEA's Youth Organizers are tackling projects to stand up for wild Salmon and Real Food:

Aurora Hoefferle (Dillingham, 17) is creating a documentary showing Dillingham’s cultural history and threats from the proposed Pebble Mine.

Alea Hale and April Norsby (Fairbanks, 14 and 13) are partnering with Calypso Farm and the Ester Library to create a home gardening “Seed Library”.