Advocacy: Katalla

Oil drilling rights to 65,000 acres of public land at Katalla expired December 31, 2004, when Chugach Alaska Corporation's contractor, Cassandra Energy, was unable to produce a commercial oil well by the New Year's Eve deadline. CAC shareholder action by Dune Lankard and legal action by The Eyak Preservation Council, Cascadia Wildlands Project, National Wildlife Federation and the Trustees for Alaska helped to raise the alarm and stop the project. However, we continue to monitor Cassandra Energy’s interest in a remaining 465 acre parcel of private land at Katalla.

Katalla has unique spiritual and historical significance for the Eyak people, and it is located adjacent to one of the richest wild salmon fisheries in the world. The first oil well in Alaska hit oil at Katalla in 1902 creating a boom town. In 1907 President Roosevelt Roosevelt helped create the Chugach National Forest, specifically mandating that the Copper River Delta be managed for fish and wildlife first and foremost. However, to this day, this designation does not provide permanent wilderness protection. In 1907 the boom town at Katalla was destroyed by a storm and the wilderness was quiet again until 1982 when an Alaska Native Claim Settlement Act (ANCSA, 1971) regional corporation, Chugach Alaska Corporation (CAC), received drilling rights to 65,000 acres on the Delta, including 10,650 acres at Katalla, in a legal settlement with Secretary of the Interior and CAC.