A Fairbanks-based nonprofit conservation organization said last week that it’s pausing its programs and furloughing staff.
A notice from the Northern Alaska Environmental Center’s board of directors says the decision came as a result of “serious financial strain.”
Board Secretary David Leslie said the pause is meant to preserve the center while the board restructures the organization and seeks more funding.
“We’re just taking it one day at a time, and we hope to get back to where we were as soon as possible,” Leslie said in an interview.
The center, founded in 1971, advocates for environmental protections in Northern and Interior Alaska from what it calls “irresponsible extraction activities.”
That includes opposition to things like the Ambler Road, and the gold ore haul between the Manh Choh mine and the Fort Knox facility north of Fairbanks. Most recently, the center has pushed back against congressional efforts to repeal the 2024 Central Yukon Resource Management Plan.
The organization also runs educational programs and occasionally takes part in lawsuits. It’s currently one of the plaintiffs suing the Trump administration to overturn an executive order that seeks to open Arctic waters off Alaska to oil drilling.
The program pause comes less than a week after the center’s now-former executive director, Elisabeth Balster Dabney, left the role. The remaining five staff members signed off on a newsletter last week that said, in part, “while it is painfully difficult for us to be forced to step away at such a dire and pivotal time, we hope to return to this work.”