The mission of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is to conserve the plants, animals and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. The estuarine ecosystems of the southeastern Gulf of Alaska are globally significant as intact ecosystems with high levels of productivity for people and wildlife.
This report is a conservation action plan (CAP), forming the foundation of TNC’s marine conservation strategies in this region. The CAP defines the project scope, the ecosystems and species conservation targets, the risk factors to those targets, and initial conservation strategies to implement in Southeastern Alaska over a 5 year planning horizon. This report builds upon the decision support tools that TNC and Audubon Alaska developed in the terrestrial ecoregional assessment for Southeastern Alaska and the State of Alaska Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy (CWCS) (ADF&G 2006; Schoen 2007). The ecoregional assessment developed recommendations for TNC’s conservation design for watersheds. While the assessment referenced estuarine systems as an important feature of the region, they were not central to the overall conservation design. This document provides the context for developing a marine conservation design which reflects the ecological connections between coastal forest watersheds and the marine ecosystems of the region.
