Alaska Geographic
supports Alaska’s public lands’ education programs.

With 49 years of work, it’s a challenge to list everything Alaska Geographic has accomplished with your help. Here is just a sampling of the support made possible for our public land partners from membership dues and donations and earnings from bookstores:

Visitor Experience

• The first free visitor guide, Alpenglow, was produced in 1979 for Denali National Park. Guides have been produced annually ever since. In 2007, eight visitor guides [link to visitor guides] were produced for a variety of Alaska’s parks, forests, and refuges and 324,000 distributed.

• 3-D map of the parks and refuges in southwest Alaska for the King Salmon Visitor Center

• Kiosk installed at the ferry terminal in Petersburg providing educational and interpretive information on the Tongass National Forest.

• Interpretive panels on Alaska Native traditional knowledge for Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge.

• Films brought to visitor center screens and made available for home viewing including the award winning Heartbeats of Denali.

• Monthly Native dance performances by the Haida Descendant Dancers given at Totem Bight State Historical Park during the summer visitor season.

• Creation of more than 100 books and other interpretive materials on Alaska’s parks, forests, and refuges.

Community and Educational Outreach

• Support for celebratory events for our public land partners, like the 100th anniversary of the Chugach National Forest held in 2007, the 60th anniversary of Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, and the centennial of the Klondike Gold Rush.

• Printing of the Shorebird Coloring Book distributed free to children by the Chugach National Forest attending the Copper River Delta Shorebird Festival in Cordova.

• Interns, materials and transportation for Kodiak Summer Science and Salmon Camp at the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge.

• Alaska’s Three Bears educational boxes created for children’s programs at the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center in Ketchikan.

• Transportation and materials for hands-on education programs Backyard Glacier, Sea Week, Winter Break Day Camp for Juneau students at the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center.

• Sponsor of Wildlife Wednesdays in Anchorage with the US Fish and Wildlife Service presenting scientists, artists, and writers who focus on Alaska’s natural and cultural heritage.

• Badges and booklets for National Park Junior Ranger programs throughout Alaska’s national parks.

• Donation of gift certificates, books, and memberships given as prizes at local community events such as awards for the winners of the McGrath School Science Fair and the young naturalist contest at the Upper Tanana Valley Migratory Bird Festival.

Beyond Alaska’s Borders

• America’s Rain Forest a distance learning education project linking children in the temperate rain forest of the Tongass National Forest with children living in the tropical rain forest in the Caribbean National Forest in Puerto Rico.

• Web cam and weather station located at Mendenhall Glacier’s terminal moraine in the Tongass National Forest.

Leveraging Our Partners Efforts

• Volunteers giving campground talks, answering questions at visitor center desks and sometimes keeping the doors open at Alaska’s far-flung public lands.

• Purchase of computers and other electronic equipment used for education and interpretive programs at national wildlife refuges, national parks, and national forests in Alaska.

• Student Conservation Association interns hired to support interpretive and resource protection functions for Denali National Park and Preserve.

• Annual interpretive training programs featuring expert speakers for National Park Service and USDA Forest Service staff and volunteers.