The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

Tim Troll and Koliganek resident Elia Ishnook looking at maps during a TEK gathering session. © Clark James Mishler

Tim Troll is the Conservancy's director of southwest Alaska programs. Troll, an attorney who specialized in municipal and Alaska Native law, has over 25 years of experience in rural southwestern Alaska , including stints as city manager for St. Mary’s, city administrator for Sand Point, and CEO for Choggiung Ltd. Troll also commercial fished for several years, and in his position with Choggiung, helped to form the Nushagak-Mulchatna—Wood/Tikchik Land Trust, of which he remains the part-time executive director.

It was the Nushagak Traditional Use Conservation project and the focus on wild salmon systems that drew Troll to the Conservancy. “Salmon are at the heart of this region. You have a several-thousand-year-old subsistence fishery. You have a 120-year-old commercial fishery. Now there’s also a diversified sportfishery. Salmon are the basic staple of life and the foundation for the cash economy. Conserving salmon is a way of protecting everything from other fish and wildlife to the Native way of life to the economy.” 

Partners in Nushagak River Watershed Conservation 

Alaska Department of Fish and Game
Bristol Bay Native Association 
Curyang Tribal Council
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
Nushagak/Mulchatna and Wood/Tikchik Land Trust
Nushagak Mulchatna Watershed Council
Southwest Alaska Conservation Council