Threatened & Endangered Species Recovery
Each ecosystem is a complicated web of relationships between plants, animals and their environment. When you lose one species, it affects the whole ecosystem - its loss can prompt cascading effects through the food chain (a “trophic cascade”), impacting other species and the ecosystem itself. So, saving one species means saving its habitat and the other species that live there too, including humans.
Under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), a species is considered endangered if it is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range. A species is considered threatened if it is likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range. Alaska is home to 13 endangered species and 8 threatened species, with at least 6 species under consideration for ESA protections.
We establish robust, grassroots strategies to recover Alaska’s Threatened and Endangered Species, focusing on a few species at a time to ensure we’re successful. Learn more about these projects below, and donate to help us support the species who need it most.
Endangered: Cook inlet BELUGA WHALES
Beluga whales are highly social, gregarious animals. They squeal, squeak, and chirp, which is why sailors long ago called them “sea canaries.”
Between 1979 and 2018, the population of Cook Inlet Beluga Whales declined by nearly 80%, from 1,300 whales to 279. AWA is working to recover these critically endangered whales before it’s too late.
tHREATENED:
pOLAR BEARS
The largest bear in the world and the Arctic's top predator, polar bears are a powerful symbol of strength and endurance in the North.
Alaska’s Southern Beaufort Sea Polar bears had more than 1,700 bears in the early 1980s - today there are fewer than 900. AWA is working to protect critical polar bear habitat in Alaska to protect these bears.
CONSIDERed: alexander archipelago wolves
Found in Southeast Alaska and coastal British Columbia, these unique island wolves face enormous threats from old-growth logging, inbreeding and over-harvest.
AWA is working to improve the State’s management of these wolves and their habitat, stabilizing their population before they become endangered.
SOME OF OUR RECENT RECOVERY WORK
