The Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition focuses on informed community watershed management. We value the long-term sustainability of Southeast Alaska’s communities and wise management of the region’s watersheds. We believe our work is important because healthy and productive watersheds are the life blood of our region’s communities, natural resource-based economies, subsistence lifestyle, and overall quality of life. We work to build the capacity of the region’s communities to implement local and collaborative approaches to the management, development, and stewardship of the region’s watersheds.
Our story:
SAWC was formed by a collective of Southeast Alaska watershed councils in 2005. These citizen-lead organizations recognized that by building a network of professionals and community leaders they would be more effective at sharing resources, implementing projects on the ground, and fostering awareness and stewardship of the many watersheds in southeast. SAWC’s core objective is to build a regional voice that promotes community watershed stewardship. SAWC does this by bolstering the capacity of communities throughout Southeast Alaska to implement local and collaborative approaches to the management, development and stewardship of the region’s watersheds.
Goal: Our goal is that Southeast Alaskans:
- Are connected to their local land, water, resources, and community;
- Are informed on the best science, practices, and techniques for managing their watersheds; and,
- Participate in the stewardship of their land, water, resources, and community.
Mission: We foster partnerships and inspire Southeast Alaskans to steward our watersheds and support communities through participatory projects, research, and learning.
Vision: We envision a unified Southeast Alaskan voice for our communities that are sustainably integrated into our watersheds in a way that benefits our ecology, economy, and quality of life.
Available for download here.
In 2022, SAWC was selected as the recipient of the Forest Service’s Rise to the Future Partnership award. As part of this award, SAWC presented on our mission and work across the region.