Eklutna Tribal Conservation District
- Established 2016
- Goals are to improve food security though community agriculture; provide effective and inclusive outreach and education; monitor, conserve and restore fish and wildlife habitat; and continue to build and maintain a strong ETCD organization.
- Community garden will have harvestable crops for the first time in 2023.
Knik Tribal Conservation District
- Established 2014
- Manages 20 acres of land for dryland food production. Collaborates with partners to address food security and promote TCD capacity.
- Recipient of an Equity grant with U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2022, which provides technical assistance to TCDs and tribes in the southcentral area.
- Conservation efforts are rooted in culturally informed land management and community engagement, from youth to Elders. Goal is to build educational and research capacity in the environmental and agricultural sciences. Working to adopt sustainable, conservation-based practices for its agricultural lands.
- Aims to expand local food production to provide Alaska Native communities with nutritious, storable food and alleviate pressures on wild food populations.
- Experimenting with alternative sources of locally sourced organic fertilizers. Working to protect fisheries and restore streambanks through practices on agricultural field margins and around riparian (wetlands adjacent to rivers and streams) areas.
Tyonek Tribal Conservation District
- Established 2005
- Covers 6.6 million rural acres of the upper/Western Cook Inlet area of Alaska, defined as the traditional hunting and fishing grounds of the Tebughna/Tyonek people.
- Since 2014, has created and managed the rural Tyonek Community Farm, a 1.5-acre operation. Harvests are distributed to local households, the Tebughna School and the Elders Lunch program.
- TTCD’s fish-passage program has replaced 12 culvert barriers over the past 10 years, working with Tyonek Native Corp. as the landowner.
- In partnership with Tyonek Native Corp., the Natural Resources Conservation Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, currently facilitating the largest fish passage project ($3.6 million) in the state of Alaska at Lower Tyonek Creek.
- Other priority programs focus on cataloging salmon habitat, monitoring for invasive aquatics, mitigating infestations of northern pike in salmon streams, networking with other TCDs and agencies on early-detection rapid-response activities, and education and training for Tebughna youth.
