Our Mission

Our mission is to honor Eyak Heritage and to conserve wild salmon culture and habitat through education, awareness and the promotion of sustainable lifeways for all peoples. 

The Eyak Preservation Council (EPC), Based in Cordova, Alaska, is a 501c3 grassroots environmental and social change organization dedicated to promoting sustainable communities and protecting and preserving wild salmon habitat and Indigenous culture in the ancestral Eyak homelands of the Prince William Sound and Copper River watersheds.

EPC was conceived on the day of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989. That disastrous event turned Eyak founder, Dune Lankard, from a commercial fisherman into a life-long community activist. EPC thereby was formed and dedicated to not only preserving the wild salmon way-of-life and Native Culture, but to turning the Exxon disaster into a precedent setting opportunity for conservation. In 1995, EPC protected 765,000 acres of ancestral rainforests from the clear-cutting efforts of regional Native Corporations in the Exxon spillzone.

EPC received its 501c3 status in 2001 and has been linking wild salmon habitat preservation, environmental justice, and cultural preservation with sustainable economic solutions ever since. EPC's goal is to protect wild salmon habitat permanently by envisioning and creating sustainable communities in which society, economics, and education all reinforce the wild salmon way of life.

With EPC's founder, its now primarily Indigenous board, and multi-cultural advisors and volunteers, we are in the unique position of representing an Indigenous voice to deflect unwarranted and destructive development issues - whether they be promoted by Native, local, private, or multi-national corporations or government agencies.

At the heart of all of EPC's work are the wild salmon, their pristine habitat and the ecosystems that not only sustain the returning salmon but also the traditional heritage and economies that depend on them. EPC's work also focuses on self-empowerment and sustainable community solutions, which include the promotion of clean and renewable energy projects that are especially valuable for the preservation of wild salmon habitat. In that regard, EPC offers value-focused programs designed to guide and partner with a broad array of constituents, achieving EPC's ultimate goal of securing permanent protection for wild salmon habitat.

Watch EPC Founder Dune Lankard present Sustainable Solutions over Centuries at the Bioneers Conference