ABOUT

The Southeast Alaska Fish Habitat Partnership (SEAKFHP) works to support collaborative fish habitat conservation in freshwater and coastal ecosystems across the southern panhandle of Alaska (southeast). Covering nearly 17 million acres of this region is the Tongass National Forest, the largest national forest in the US, and a key producer of salmon. This region is comprised of over 13,000 miles of anadromous fish habitat with numerous watersheds supporting a variety of salmon and other commercially and culturally important fish and aquatic species. Freshwater and coastal habitats abound, including over 20,000 lakes and ponds, more than 18,000 miles of shoreline, over 12,000 estuaries, and countless streams and rivers in excess of 35,000 miles of fluvial habitat. The region is defined by rainforests, glacial fiords, rivers and streams, estuaries, mountains, and glaciers and ranks as one of the largest, most complex, and intact estuarine and temperate rainforest systems on earth.

Our partners include a diverse set of stakeholders who share a common interest to conserve and sustain the region’s abundant and intact fish habitat, fisheries-based economy and culture, and quality of life these fish and aquatic resources bring to local communities. To achieve the broad mission of the partnership, partners have developed a strategic action plan that includes two focal Fish Habitat Conservation Strategies, one that focus on freshwater systems and a second that focuses on coastal areas of southeast. To bring context and support to those strategies the SEAKFHP Operational Strategy and Business Plan for 2017-2021 was developed and lays out the partnership’s organizational and service strategies and shares the partnership’s fiscal needs and goals.