TCC hosts Yukon-Tanana subsistence advocacy workshop July 24

Subsistence fishing closures are already in effect across much of the Yukon drainage, and Yukon-Tanana harvesters facing restricted times, gear types, and openings can learn how to respond at a virtual advocacy workshop Tanana Chiefs Conference's Tribal Resource Stewardship Program is hosting July 24, from 2 to 3 p.m.

The session is designed to help participants understand current wildlife and salmon issues, learn advocacy tools, and hear how community testimony carries weight in management decisions. It is part of TCC's ongoing 2026 series on traditional and subsistence practices, arts, and advocacy, which included an Upper Tanana Management Area training in June.

Alaska Department of Fish and Game schedules for the Yukon Area and Tanana River regulate the times, gear types, and openings available to subsistence and personal use harvesters. Those schedules have reflected years of conservation-driven restrictions tied to poor Chinook and chum returns. Upriver community advocates argue they bear a disproportionate share of those restrictions while bycatch and offshore harvest remain inadequately curtailed.

"Alaska's wildlife and our subsistence way of life are at a turning point," Chelsea Thurman, Behavioral Health Administrative Assistant at the Old Minto Family Recovery Camp at Tanana Chiefs Conference, said in Monday's TCC Weekly episode. "The health of our salmon, our lands, and our communities depend on what we do now. Your voice matters and it carries weight."

The July 24 session builds on earlier organizing. More than 100 people testified before the North Pacific Fishery Management Council in Anchorage in early April on the need to address salmon bycatch. Follow TCC on social media for more information about the workshop and other upcoming community events.