Tribal Wildlife Grant Program
In 2011, the NIC was awarded a Tribal Wildlife Grant from the US Fish and Wildlife Service titled Development of a Conservation Plan to Assess the Impact of Climate Change on Nelson Island Area Wildlife Through a Traditional Yup’ik Cooperative Process Among Shared Subsistence Use Tribes. The goal of our project is to provide for protection, recovery, and restoration of fish and wildlife populations that are impacted by climate change in the Nelson Island Area of the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta in Western Alaska. A Conservation Plan will be developed by the Nelson Island Consortium of seven federally recognized Tribes that share the lands for subsistence activities. Over a two-year project timeline the plan will be generated through a traditional Yup’ik Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and Elder-led process on which the Consortium is based. Using the preferred daily tongue of the Yup’ik language and based on historical and current observations of species habitat, characteristics, and population changes, Elders from each village will lead and work with other Consortium community members to identify plan needs, best field strategies, and best sustainable community-based implementation efforts. The Plan will be developed in active collaboration with Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge (YDNWR) staff, and a Natural Resource partnership with the USFWS will be built.
The contact for this program is Margaret Nickerson 907 237 2314 dinning69@yahoo.com
Interim project documents
DRAFT Elder interviews in Yup’ik