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Our longtime friend and supporter Nancy Lord used to set-net on the west side of Alaska’s Cook Inlet. Beluga whales “often passed our camp in huge pods, often more than a hundred at a time, and sometimes when we were in our skiff we’d cut the motor just to drift among them,” she said. “They always avoided our nets.”
I started at Trustees in 1994 as an intern working on Cook Inlet water quality issues, and later as a staff attorney and legal director who took the Pebble project to court in 2009. Yep, we're in court again on Pebble, and still fighting to keep pollutants out of Cook Inlet, but our partnerships and coalitions have evolved and grown. In my nearly six years as executive director, I've learned one thing--that change is coming, even when it feels like the change we need won't budge.
Rachel’s family knew she would be a lawyer before she did. Her grandfather used to tell her that long before she knew a thing about the legal field, but she didn’t buy it—maybe because she didn’t like other people telling her what to do, or maybe because she was the family member who would argue with him about anything, or because she was just a kid with an imagination as broad and expansive as the future. Whatever the case, no one doubted her penchant for advocacy. Take the story of the shiny red shoes.
December feels bittersweet this year. Sweet because I love snowy mountains and am excited to begin a new chapter of conservation work, community engagement, and exploration of new places here in Vermont. And, also, Alaska holds a special place in my heart, like it does with so many others. Leaving so much that I love about my work and life in Alaska is no easy feat. These transitions, however rewarding and full of hope, can be challenging. And yet it was a transition that brought me to Alaska to work for Trustees years ago.
I have spent most of my life in Alaska, and most of my career at Trustees for Alaska, so it is with some sadness that I have decided to stop the full-time practice of law. The staff at Trustees, and the people we represent have been what motivates me to do this work. There is not anywhere else I would rather work or any place else I would rather live. Though I’m retiring from fulltime legal work, I’m staying right here in Alaska, and I plan to continue to support the protection of the fish, wildlife, air and water that we all need to survive and thrive.