Fourteen miles of land along the Nome River — one of western Alaska's key salmon and subsistence rivers — are now owned by Nome's local Native corporation for permanent conservation and stewardship.
Sitnasuak Native Corp. now holds the title to about 1,700 acres, which used to be a patchwork of Gold Rush-era mining claims and private parcels. The land was transferred to the local Native corporation by The Conservation Fund, a national nonprofit that purchases and distributes land for permanent conservation.
The organization first bought the properties when they quietly came to market in 2024.
“These lands were transferred to the Sitnasuak Native Corporation, subject to a conservation easement held by the Interior Alaska Land Trust, ensuring permanent protection for wildlife and subsistence access,” said John Wros, the fund’s state director for Alaska.
The Interior Alaska Land Trust is one of six nonprofit land trusts in the state. The easement locks in conservation values, protecting habitat, river function and subsistence access, even if corporate leadership or economic conditions change over time.
While Sitnasuak owns the land and manages access under its existing land use policies, Wros said the easement is a binding set of limits on use and development.
"Those conditions were pre-negotiated and are baked into the deed restriction," Wros said. "The role of the Interior Alaska Land Trust is to be a partner to Sitnasuak Native Corporation to ensure that management and protections are maintained, consistent with that deed restriction that all parties agreed to."
The stretch of land along the Nome River supports more than a million spawning salmon each year and provides habitat for migratory birds, muskox, moose, beavers and bears. A joint statement from Sitnasuak Native Corporation and The Conservation Fund says that for decades, private ownership meant local residents often had to cross someone else’s land to reach traditional fishing, hunting and gathering sites.
The Conservation Fund has worked in all 50 states to protect more than 9 million acres of land and water, including 400,000 acres in Alaska. Wros said what makes this stretch stand out is not just its ecological value, but how close it is to town.
“Alaska, of course, has its own exceptions in the landscape scale that still exists here, but so much of that is remote,” Wros said. “In this case, this stretch of a beautiful river, so close to a place where so many people live, owned by a single entity, in particular a private entity, is just something we don't run into every day."
Sitnasuak Native Corp. already holds title to more than 232,000 acres and has over 3,100 Alaska Native shareholders. In a statement, the Native corporation's CEO, Charles Fagerstrom, called the new acquisition "a precious piece of land" and said adding it to Sitnasuak Native Corp. land assets ensures it will be protected in perpetuity.
A community celebration is planned for later this summer.
