For wildlife like polar bears and caribou, for local communities and Alaska Natives, and for future generations, Alaska Wilderness League strives to protect Alaska's most significant wild land from oil and gas drilling and other industrial threats. Currently, Alaska Wilderness League is working to protect the 
What’s Your Alaska?
Alaska is our country’s biggest and wildest state. There are as many caribou as people, and midnight sun shines through the summers. To some, Alaska is a symbol of something else, something beautiful, something wild. To many, Alaska seems to mean different things.
This is the place for you to share what Alaska means to you. Feel free to share your stories, thoughts, pictures, or prayers. This is where we would like to experience your Alaska.
Feel free to upload a picture from a time in Alaska or of a community event about protecting wild Alaska below!
“I am…”
We’re collecting and sharing stories from wilderness advocates around the country to reaffirm the bedrock American value of conservation and revive the legacy of wilderness protection in Alaska. These inspiring stories are now viewable here.
Thanks for Sharing Your Videos!
If you have a video about wild Alaska, pass it our way! (Send it to matt at alaskawild dot org) We’ll happily post it.
Arctic Boogie:
Thanks for Sharing Your Photos!
Here are some amazing photos that several of you have shared with us. Click on the pictures to enlarge them! If others would like to share some of your beautiful Alaska pictures, please upload them in the form below.
Check the box if you would like to allow Alaska Wilderness League to use your picture for other purposes, including but not limited to newsletters, mailings, and posters. If you check this box, we will credit the photographer’s name you have provided. There will be a slight delay after you submit the file as the picture is uploaded.
May 27th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
I would like to know what it would take for the oil companies to explore for oil and gas, as the world does need it, but still protect the environment in Alaska.
Seems as if there is a need for more oil and gas but they need to explore and develop it for the benefit of all- the environment/the community etc.
Is there a way out of this?
June 4th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
I grew up in Alaska. My love for skiing, mountain biking, hiking, and backpacking has taken me all over the this great state. Yet there is still so much more to see! I appreciate all the national parks and refuges that Alaska has so I know the wilderness will still be there for future generations.
August 17th, 2007 at 10:31 am
I have been an activist for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge since first reading an article about it in 1986. As I read about it and saw photographs of the migrating caribou I became enthralled and drawn into this serene and beautiful place. Long before I knew of organizations working for its preservation I wrote Senators and Congressmen and shared my knowledge of the Arctic Refuge with friends and family. I never dreamed I would ever see it in person!
BUT in June 2002, at age 54, after an extensive fitness program, I flew to Fairbanks to join an “Arctic Treks” eleven day rafting trip on the Hulahula River. I had never even camped before! We first flew to Arctic Village, a Gwich’in village on the edge of the Refuge. With the privilege of flying co-pilot next to Kirk aboard his small 4-seater plane we lifted off from Arctic Village and suddenly we were approaching the Brooks Range. Overwhelmed with the emotion of knowing and seeing that I was over the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for the first time I sat there silently weeping. I also wept flying out after eleven of the most glorious days of my life. Forever, forever with me. I did not need to visit the Refuge to appreciate the magnificent beauty of it and its significance. It is in the minds and hearts eye that wild places live for us all. What do I most remember from being there? The absence of human-made noise, the songs of the Redpoll, the lichen, the multitude of wildflowers, a spider on the tundra of the Coastal Plain, my first sighting of a Caribou, the snow and sleet and wind, the cold, the continuous sound of the river, the Arctic blue ice, the solitude, the Midnight Sun, the migratory birds, the clean air and water, and my wonderful guides Jeff and Josh who taught me to appreciate Arctic time. We must always have wilderness areas untouched by industry and development for it is the knowledge of the existence of such places that keeps us free and our spirits open in order that we might fly in our minds and hearts eyes.
August 25th, 2007 at 1:11 am
Alaska is not a simple thing. It is a million visions to a million different people. I have never been to Alaska, yet I know this is a part of the earth the must stay intact and unchanged by man. The land deserves our respect, not our mutilation. Some of the most beautiful aspects of our earth and our humanity reside in Alaska; for every refuge and reserve that is picked apart, there is a piece of our earth gone missing.
November 26th, 2007 at 9:24 am
alaska is the most incredible country!But not only for wildness,no,everything is unique:the beauty of the nature,the animals you can meet everyway,the people so kind,the life so different that’s hard to believe you’re in usa and…juneau,a unique capital!I’m looking forward going back next summer!
November 26th, 2007 at 9:29 am
sorry I made a mistake in my comment:I wrote wilderness in a wrong way…I’m italian and without dictionary!!!
January 11th, 2008 at 10:51 am
Beautiful Video, Thank You, Tearfully, Bidu
February 3rd, 2008 at 10:09 pm
I’ve never been to Alaska. But it’s my dream. I research it all the time and as soon as it’s in my power to do so I want to go and never come back. I hate pollution and cities. To me, Alaska is hope that maybe the whole world isn’t as terrible as it seems.
February 7th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
I have never been 2 alaska and im only 15. Iv seen pictures and heard absolute brilliant storys about it,it is my dream to go their and see nearly a whole new world then what were living in now.
February 7th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
It’s my dream to one day go to Alaska a do some wilderness camera work. I’m only 17 so it seems a long ways away but everything there seems so simple and care-free.
February 14th, 2008 at 9:43 am
If you have never been to Alaska you need to go! It is the most beautiful state you will ever visit. I went 2 years ago with my church for a mission trip and have missed every second of it.
February 26th, 2008 at 8:18 am
I was born in Fairbanks October 20th, 1985. My father served in the Air Force and we were stationed at Eielson. We left when I was six months old and moved to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. My dad has told me about the night we left and how me and my sister stayed up with him and watched the Northern Lights and how you could actually hear them. I have no memories of Alaska to speak of, only pictures and videos, only stories and images in my dreams. Alaska is in my blood, I have moved all over the U.S. and England, but the only place I have ever longed to go is the home I have no memories of. It’s hard to explain to my friends who have lived in Georgia all their lives about the emptiness one feels when they have no memories of their home, especially when Home is Alaska. I have vowed to return one day and stay there. Some have asked me “what if it turns out you don’t like it up there?” I don’t see how I could ever not love it in Alaska, it is a part of me. Despite living only six months there, when somone asks me where I am from I happily say “Nowhere really, I moved around all my life- but if I had to say one place it is Alaska.”
April 17th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
i really want to go to Alaska since i was born over there.. Ive been in el paso for so long and I really want to go there to now were i was born.. that would be so great.. thats wath i want to do..since i dont remember
April 22nd, 2008 at 1:52 am
I have longed for Alaska for MANY years. I have watched web cams, researched numerous cities and viewed thousands of wilderness and scenery photos. I really cannot explain why I have such a deep desire for Alaska. I want to move to Fairbanks and explore Barrow. The beauty I imagine and the breath-taking Aurora Borelus will one day be mine!
April 28th, 2008 at 10:34 am
Please Don’t Drill in Paradise
I Walked from the Mountains to the Sea
I walked from the mountains to the sea
Through a land that is totally free
A land where the caribou roam
A land where bear and wolf call home
A land where nature’s balance is the key
I walked from the mountains to the sea
Without hearing human’s sounds passing me
The only prints on the ground
From the wildlife that was around
And the nesting birds were let be.
I walked from the mountains to the sea
And observed such beauty without even a tree
Drank from the clear streams
Filled by melting snow so it seems
And at the end, swam in the icy Beaufort Sea
I walked from the mountains to the sea
With a guide who was always near to me
Dori was the lady’s name
A powerful, spiritual woman was her fame
She served good meals, coffee and black tea.
I walked from the mountains to the sea
Broad plains, braided streams, hummock fields were all to see
And always on the way, in our sights
Was the arctic ice cap view so bright
The beauty of glaciered landscapes was hard to believe.
I walked from the mountains to the sea
With conservation minded people like me
Who needed to understand
The impact on the land
If oil drilling is ever to be.
I walked from the mountains to the sea
Thinking what heaven must be
It is right here on earth
Without the developer’s curse
It is the Alaskan Wildlife Refuge so free
July 2006
May 17th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
I went to Alaska 2 summers ago, and it changed many views of mine. My dream used to be to move to New York City after college and become a sucessful buisnesswoman, but after I visited it, I decided my dream is to live there. I only saw it in the summertime and on a cruise, but I wold really like to go back and stay a while. I am a little nervous to see it in the winter though.
June 28th, 2008 at 2:56 am
# phil dyer Says:
May 27th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
I would like to know what it would take for the oil companies to explore for oil and gas, as the world does need it, but still protect the environment in Alaska.
Seems as if there is a need for more oil and gas but they need to explore and develop it for the benefit of all- the environment/the community etc.
Is there a way out of this?
October 27th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
when my kids are grown up alaska is where im going to settle down. keep it pure, wild, free. its one state that has clean air, pure water and wildlife that man has not built towns over forcing the wild animals to look for another place to call home. alaska is soon to be my home… I can’t wait
November 19th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
I was born in Alaska and lived my first eight years here. Long enough to have memories of Alaska in the early 60’s. I then spent 16 long years down in the lower 48. Upon returning back to Alaska in 1983 my heart sank at the changes that took place. My heart continues to struggle with the seemingly inevitable destruction of this beautiful land by mining and oil industries and the wiping out of our animals by SPORT hunters. They are having currently a devestating effect on our animals, not even eating the meat. We need people like you who have contributed comments to not be fooled by the lies of alaskan government and business’s who will tell you all is well in Alaska
November 20th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
I was born and raised in Alaska, and I moved out of it 11 months ago to Denver. Moving out of Alaska is by far one of the hardest experiences I’ve ever gone through, and I highly doubt I will stay gone for long. It hurts to leave a place that becomes such a huge part of you. There’s nowhere else like it.
November 24th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
I have dreamed to go to Alaska all my life.I live on an island in the mediterranean and never thought I’ll have the opportunity to go.However, God granted me and my fiance the opportunity to go their for our honeymoon next June.I’m so happy and really looking fowrad to it.
November 27th, 2008 at 9:12 am
I am trying to get back to Alaska to live there and be close to the last real wilderness in this country, not in a city, but off the grid, living in harmony with nature.
December 1st, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Alaska is so much more than a home. It is a promise of wilderness, of life lived simply, of a place that has yet to be paved over, extracted and sold to the highest bidder. It is a place of opportunity. For jobs, for communities, for making good choices based on the hard lessons learned by others. We have a real chance here to grow sustainably developed communities, to protect what is important and use our resources responsibly. A chance to support Native communities as they negotiate the blending of traditional ways of being into the challenges of today, to build up rather than break down the values of living with nature rather than preying upon it. An opportunity to grow renewable energy resources to feed our growing population while learning how to conserve for years to come. Alaska is not just a vacation destination. It is home.
December 11th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
I am 73 years old and I have never been to Alaska and probably never go as I am on oxygen 24 hours a day. I am a animal lover and I love the wilderness. I guess this is why I have no use for Governor Palin - I don’t believe in my 73 years I have ever seen a person so cruel to animals as she is.
One day she will have to stand before her maker.
December 25th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
I came to Alaska 41 years ago as a teenager. My first career was smokejumping; over an 11 year period I parachuted into 17 national forests across seven states to fight wildfires. Then for 30 years I taught gifted students. Now I summit alpine peaks, run rivers and traverse mountain ranges. I am skied from Seward on the Pacific 1000 miles to Unalakleet on the Bering Sea.
April 27th, 2009 at 1:29 am
Alaska is such a beautiful place we must all do our part to protect her and all of the wildlife that call Alaska home now and for all future generations to enjoy.