2026 Cook Inlet Water Quality Summit
October 26th & 27th, 2026
Cook Inlet is the most populated watershed in Alaska, home to a diverse array of people, cultures, wildlife, and economic interests. This October, Alaska Wildlife Alliance, Defenders of Wildlife, Environmental Investigation Agency, Kachemak Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, and the Tikhatnu Intertribal Fish Commission are pleased to present the second Cook Inlet Water Quality Summit. This FREE two-day informational summit will host presentations and panels on Cook Inlet water quality, biodiversity, research, regulations, policy, and more. At this Summit, we seek to:
Improve understanding of the status of Cook Inlet waters and ecosystems
Improve understanding of the regulatory framework regarding water quality issues, and engagement with decision-makers
Identify data gaps and opportunities for collaboration
Share data concerning Cook Inlet water quality, for the benefit of people and wildlife
Build connections and identify potential collaborations at the local, regional, and Inlet-wide levels to address pressing needs.
See previous years’ Program Books below!
This is a free, two-day event and space is limited. To register as a participant and/or presenter, please complete the form below.
2026 Cook Inlet Water Quality Summit Registration
This event is supported by the McPike-Zima Foundation. The 2026 Cook Inlet Water Quality Summit’s planning committee includes representatives from these and other organizations, as well as the Tikhatnu Intertribal Fish Commission:
Past Cook Inlet Water Quality Summits
2024 Cook Inlet Water Quality Summit
Follow-Up Community Discussions
October 28 & 29, 2024 in Homer and Anchorage.
After the Cook Inlet Water Quality Summit held in Anchorage in October 2023, we surveyed Summit participants to get feedback on the most helpful follow-up gathering.
Overwhelmingly, folks requested community-level discussions about water quality across Cook Inlet. In October 2024, several organizations again partnered to host Cook Inlet Water Quality Summit follow-up community discussions in Anchorage and Homer, representing upper and lower Cook Inlet, for the purposes of:
Clarifying who is working on what locally, regionally, and Inlet-wide (see Registrants Information);
Identifying general information needs and data gaps across groups and determining if an existing group/project has information to fill that need/gap;
Building connections and identifying potential collaborations at the local, regional, and Inlet-wide levels to address pressing needs.
The targeted audiences were representatives of organizations and agencies whose work is related to, or affected by, Cook Inlet’s water quality, as well as participants from the 2023 Cook Inlet Water Quality Summit. For each discussion topic, select individuals provided a very brief overview of their work relating to that topic, what their limitations are, and what they see as pressing needs. There was an open discussion about other pressing needs and potential collaborations. Recognizing the limited time allocated for individual updates in each session, registrants who indicated interest in speaking were offered to have a brief abstract about their work included in this document.
Scroll down to view the Program Book, complete with the agenda, community discussion topics, brief abstracts, and registrant information.
2023 Cook Inlet Water Quality Summit
October 24 & 25, 2023 in Anchorage.
Cook Inlet is the most populated watershed in Alaska, home to a diverse array of people, cultures, wildlife, and economic interests. In October, we co-hosted a FREE two-day informational summit, where we shared knowledge on Cook Inlet water quality, biodiversity, research, regulations, policy and more. At this Summit, we sought to:
Improve understanding of the status of Cook Inlet waters and ecosystems
Improve understanding of the regulatory framework regarding water quality issues, and engagement with decision-makers
Identify data gaps and opportunities for collaboration
Share data concerning Cook Inlet water quality, for the benefit of people and wildlife
Scroll down to view the Program Book, complete with the Summit agenda, speaker bios, presentation abstracts, and presentation slides.
