June marked the start of TTCD’s “pike camp,” where our Habitat Monitoring and Restoration team spends the entire month in Beluga eradicating invasive pike that prey on juvenile salmonids. Pictured is Bella, a staff member of our partner, the Ahtna Intertribal Resource Commission, examining a northern pike’s stomach contents. June also marked the beginning of the TTCD Youth Summer Internships, ongoing work to complete the yurt at the Tyonek Garden and a summer reading event for Tyonek youth. Plus, TTCD is hiring!

May felt like the true start to summer at TTCD: full of field work, community gatherings, and planting! This month, our Habitat, Monitoring, and Restoration team took their first trip to Beluga to prep for “pike camp”, we put up our two high tunnels at the Tyonek Garden, and we spent time with the Tebughna School students celebrating STEM learning, releasing the Salmon in the Classroom, and planting their indoor seedling at the Garden Blessing in Tyonek!

April brought a steady rhythm of activity for TTCD as programs ramped up for the season ahead. Tebughna students started indoor seedlings and took part in field trips exploring Native Alaskan culture, local ecosystems, and owls! Our Habitat Monitoring & Restoration team welcomed two new staff members and the Tyonek Garden is starting to thaw in welcome of spring (and summer)!

It’s officially spring, though you wouldn’t know it by the cool temperatures we have been getting for most of this month! Spring for TTCD is a flurry of activity. We are getting ready to start seedlings with the Tebughna School, hire Youth Garden Interns, deliver more salmon to more Tyonek households, and prep for our first habitat monitoring and restoration projects of the summer, including Pike Camp!

February is starting to bring longer days and with it, an eye toward summer planning. TTCD’s Habitat Monitoring and Restoration team is currently hiring Conservation Technicians for the coming 2026 field season to join our team in implementing annual biological field tasks. Visit ttcd.org/job-opportunities/ to learn more. Our team has also been focused on analyzing summer data, running the Tyonek Gather Market, and engaging Tebughna students in the Salmon in the Classroom program!

Happy New Year from TTCD! We kicked off the year by helping to organize an Alaska Tribal Conservation District Network Meeting, bringing together twenty-two TCDs from across the state for two and a half days of collaboration to chart a course for sustaining our partnerships into the future! Though we are deep in winter, our team is already starting to think about the upcoming summer season. Look out for summer job applications coming soon to our facebook page and website for field technician and garden youth positions!