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Environmental Writing

Andrés Javier Camacho
Heather Evoy standing with her children, Silje and Judah Haven Marr in their regalia with sitka spruce forest in the background
FORUM Magazine •

Cradling the Sockeye: A Conversation on Language, Land, and Legacy with Heather Evoy - Alaska Humanities Forum

Winter 2024-25, FORUM Magazine

HEATHER EVOY'S HOME on Áak’w Kwáan—Juneau—bubbles with energy. Outside, heavy clouds may choke the Mendenhall Valley, and mud puddles may call for woolly socks and Xtratufs, but within Heather's home, an inviting warmth prevails. Her kids, Judah and Silje, charge the place with an energy that stems from a mother who is consciously raising her children to engage with the world around them and to take pride in who they are, and where they come from.

Arrival at Heat...
Shannon Kelly Donahue
Chilkat Inlet on a flat calm day, with blue sky and snow-covered mountains reflected in its glassy surface
Writers Rebel •

The Herring, the Whale and the Mining Executive

The herring came in on Tuesday, pulsing into Mud Bay with the tide, heralded by flocks of gulls and roaring sea lions. The run occurs in a flash, like their iridescent bodies catching sunlight as the school shifts in unison to evade a predator. Herring run when the water temperature is just right. Females seek the shelter of eelgrass to lay their eggs. Males follow and fertilize, leaving milky blankets of milt to settle and create more life, more herring. The herring bring the first real pulse o

Opinion

Juneau Empire •

Opinion: SEACC United clears the air on unionization

On Dec. 9, 2022, non-management employees of Southeast Alaska Conservation Council unionized as SEACC United, joining the Communications Workers of America, District 7, an AFL-CIO affiliate. With a public supermajority of all eligible — permanent, non-management — employees, the union was established in accordance with the National Labor Relations Act.

SEACC United went public Dec. 12 with a request to SEACC leadership for voluntary recognition. We informed leadership that if we were not recogn
Juneau Empire •

Opinion: BC mining industry is toxic to both sides of the border

Environmentalists in Southeast Alaska are hoping to renew a push for action on pollution of transboundary waters flowing from Canada into the U.S. South of the Juneau, heavy metals run out of the Tulsequah Chief mine opening and down to holding ponds next to the Tulsequah River Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2008. Leakage from those ponds can be seen entering the river that flows into the Taku River down stream. (Michael Penn | Juneau Empire file)

The British Columbia mining industry’s opinion piece in las
Anchorage Daily News •

Letter: Mine discharge permits legalize pollution

“We pursue a higher standard.” That’s the slogan of Coeur Alaska, owner/operator of Kensington Mine. Coeur’s “higher standard” recently led to them settling with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over 200 wastewater discharge violations at Kensington from 2015.Additional violations included unauthorized discharge of acid rock drainage into Lower Slate Lake, multiple effluent sampling violations and failure to repair a fuel storage containment structure for over two years, among others.

Press Releases

Derek Poinsette
Glacier Creek in the fall with golden foliage and termination dust
Southeast Alaska Conservation Council •

Conservation Organizations Demand Public Process on Palmer Project Permit

HAINES, ALASKA (Deishú/Lḵóot and Jilḵáat Kwáan) — Local and regional conservation organizations (Audubon Alaska, Great Bear Foundation, Earthjustice, Lynn Canal Conservation, Rivers Without Borders, and Southeast Alaska Conservation Council) called for a public process surrounding the Palmer Project’s revised waste management permit application in a letter to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC) Tuesday.
Southeast Alaska Conservation Council •

Supreme Court Rules Clean Water Act Does Not Sanction Loophole

Thursday’s United States Supreme Court decision in County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund validates the strength of the Clean Water Act to protect our nation’s waters. The decision recognizes polluters cannot avoid the Clean Water Act’s permit requirements just by pumping pollution into the ground where doing so is the functional equivalent of discharging that pollution directly into streams, lakes, and oceans.

Calls to Action

Shannon Donahue
Brown bear tracks in river silt on the Chilkat River
Great Bear Foundation •

Protect Alaska's Chilkat and Klehini Rivers from Mining Impacts

The world’s largest congregation of bald eagles is threatened by a mine being developed near Alaska’s Chilkat and Klehini Rivers.

The Chilkat and Klehini rivers are critical wildlife habitat and sustain the Chilkat Tlingit of Klukwan, and the community of Haines, Alaska, where the Great Bear Foundation's Northern Office is located. The proposed Palmer Project, a copper/zinc mine, will seriously impact the rivers of the Chilkat Valley, debilitating the entire ecosystem.


The Klehini River

Environmental Policy

Hannah Reeves

Photo of Shannon Donahue standing on the Chilkat River on a fall day with golden foliage and low hanging fog behind her. Shannon has long, brown hair, is smiling and wearing a black top.

Shannon Kelly Donahue is an environmental writer, editor, and advocate, based on the Chilkat Peninsula just south of Deishú (Haines), Alaska, on Jilkáat Aani.

Shannon specializes in environmental, nature, and place-based writing, climate change and science communication, clean water advocacy, environmental policy, nonprofit communications, academic writing, and creative nonfiction. 

Connect with her on LinkedIn with the blue button below. Download her CV with the black button. 

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