Pedro Bay (Alaska)

Photo credit: Chris Little, The Conservation Fund

In 2022, the Wyss Foundation provided a $5,000,000 grant to The Conservation Fund to help purchase conservation easements protecting 44,173 acres in the heart of the Bristol Bay region—located on the northeastern end of Alaska’s largest lake, Iliamna Lake.

These lands faced threats from an industrial-scale road that the Pebble Mine project desired to build, connecting the proposed mine site to Cook Inlet on the Pacific Ocean. The easement purchases permanently protected this massive swath of land and rivers containing the largest wild salmon fishery in the world—comprising fifty-seven percent of global sockeye salmon harvests—and supporting more than 15,000 jobs. The Pedro Bay Rivers project safeguards a remarkable salmon spawning habitat and a habitat for moose, seal, brown bear, and wolf.

The land remains in Pedro Bay Corporation ownership, and easements ensure that the Pile River, Iliamna River, and Knutson Creek waters are conserved to maintain cultural and subsistence activities and the annual returns of sockeye salmon. By selling the conservation easements and generating revenue for the Pedro Bay Corporation, the project helped propel the goals of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and provided long-term financial stability and robust Alaska Native shareholder benefits.

The Pedro Bay Rivers project, protecting more than 44,000 acres of vital salmon and wildlife habitat in the Iliamna Lake region, was made possible through the work of The Conservation Fund, the Bristol Bay Heritage Land Trust, Bristol Bay Native Corporation, and numerous other philanthropic partners.