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Friends Group · Refuge

Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges

“Promote the conservation of Alaska’s national wildlife refuges.”

2 live lawsuits, 1 comment to the agencies.

Home groundAnchorage, AK
Founded2005
Find themalaskarefugefriends.org ↗

Give to them ↗Every way to help ↓

Right nowIzembek National Wildlife Refuge: Road through designated wilderness2 cases live in federal court

The work

What they do

Advocacy and education for Alaska’s 16 national wildlife refuges, which constitute the majority of the National Wildlife Refuge System acreage.

How they run

Small and lean

We don’t hold a detailed federal filing for this group. Groups this size often file the short form or run below the IRS reporting line, so there’s no budget or crew to show here, and that’s no knock: some of the sharpest local defense in the country runs this way.

Run this group? Claim the page and send us your numbers. An editor checks them before they go up.

The record

The court record

Gwich’in Steering Committee v. United States Department of the Interior
activeAgency procedurePlaintiffCourt record
Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
activeNational Environmental Policy ActPlaintiffCourt record
Friends of Alaska Nat’l v. Debra Haaland
closedAdministrative Procedure ActPlaintiffCourt record

Fights alongside Alaska Wilderness League (2 shared cases), Defenders of Wildlife (2 shared cases), National Wildlife Refuge Association (2 shared cases), Sierra Club (2 shared cases) and The Wilderness Society (2 shared cases) and 6 more. Same case, same side, on the federal docket.

The record

On the record with the agencies

1 comment on federal decisions since 2023, each filed under the group’s own name on regulations.gov, none yet on a decision we track. Read them on regulations.gov.

Year by year

The record, in order

  1. 2005Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges is formed.the return, formation year
  2. 2020Gwich’in Steering Committee v. United States Department of the Interior: plaintiff, still in court.the docket
  3. Friends of Alaska Nat’l v. Debra Haaland: plaintiff, closed.the docket
  4. 2026Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges v. U.S. Army Corps Of Engineers: plaintiff, still in court.the docket
  5. 1 comment to the Interior Department, under the group’s own name.regulations.gov

Rust, a case still in court. Hollow, a filing. Every row is a record we hold: 3 federal cases with the group on the docket, 1 comment filed under its own name. Nothing here is written from memory.

Their ground

The places they defend

Leading the fight · Critical threatIzembek National Wildlife Refuge

Lead plaintiff in the November 2025 federal suit challenging the land exchange signed to put a road through the Izembek Wilderness

Who’s defending it

See every threatened place on one map, and who stands for each.

Where and what
Works onwildlife · stewardship · education
Federal landsFish & Wildlife Service
Active inAlaska
Who writes the rules where they work

The Alaska congressional delegation averages 4 of 100 on public lands. See the full scorecard

More groups in Alaska
AdvocacyAlaska Community Action on ToxicsAlaska Community Action on Toxics was founded in Anchorage in December 1997 to take on the health harms of pollution from industrial, resource extraction and military sites, existing and proposed. It works through advocacy, community education and research done with the communities affected, toward environmental justice for Alaskans.Anchorage, AKFriends GroupAlaska GeographicPromote discovery and stewardship of Alaska's public lands.Anchorage, AKWildlifeAlaska Wildlife AllianceThe Alaska Wildlife Alliance has advocated for Alaska's wildlife and the habitat it lives on since 1978, from Anchorage. It pushes for an ecosystem approach to wildlife management, built from the ground up, and for the state to keep its constitutional promise to manage renewable resources for all Alaskans.Anchorage, AK

Ways in

How to help

GiveGive directly

Straight to their own donation page. Your dollar never passes through us.

Give on their site ↗SpeakComment and call

Open comment windows and call scripts for fights like these, ready to send.

Public Lands Action NetworkFollowWatch the map

Every threatened place in the country, tracked, with who stands for each.

Threatened Lands Map

Stand with Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges

The mission is theirs. The backing is yours.

Give to them ↗
Sources and methodCourt record: CourtListener dockets in the MTJP litigation database (2 linked cases: 2 active). Allies: co-litigation edges derived from the same dockets, same case and same side. Agency comments: regulations.gov comments whose submitter organization is the group’s own name, each row linked to the comment itself. Place links: MTJP editorial curation with per-link sources. Org-reported figures are always labeled. Nothing on this page is pay-to-play.