Letter from the President

23 March 2026

Dear Denali Citizens,

I am very sorry that this letter comes to you almost 2 years after assuming the position of President of the Denali Citizens Council. Though I have allowed Life to take up most of my time since my appointment, I am certain that my actual strength lies in my fellow Board members, our passionate membership, our community members, and with those future friends with whom we wish to connect.

I would like to thank Steve Carwile for his encyclopedic knowledge and tireless interest in all things Planning. He is our guy for wading through some of the bureaucracy of maintaining this Park and its environs to the Standards that we—those who love and respect the Park and have spent so much time in it—demand. And he’s cute where kittens and book raffles are concerned.

Thank you to our new Board Members:  Henry Braun for being our Tech Assist and Passionate Citizen, to Jake Hill for helping with the Tri-Valley Science Fair each year, to Tiffanie Cross for being an amazing Science Whisperer, and Lupine Reifler for joining us in this mini-adventure as our very first teenage Board Member. Lupine has also been SO helpful in stepping into the Secretary role for DCC, on top of all of his other activities, while continuing to be a Student of Excellence! I have enjoyed getting to know these folks and working with them on ways to help our Park community, by exploring their strengths.

Thank you to Erica Watson, DCC’s Vision Quester and a significant touchstone with the Denali Community, for infusing some fire in things the past couple of years! Let’s keep the fire burning!

Thank you to Nancy Russell for serving on the Board for several years, including as Vice-President, and for being such an inspiration to me for decades with her knowledge, passion, and her laugh. She has been instrumental in reestablishing the DCC Annual General Meeting, which is like an informative party with nice food! Nancy has stepped down from the Board, and will be dearly missed, but has offered to continue helping an organization she loves by planning the next DCC Annual General Meeting around mid-May. She continues to inspire by subscribing to DCC’s efforts to involve Community members without a commitment to service on the Board.

Thank you to Charlie Loeb for his mentorship and continued guidance.

And a HUGE Thank You to Nancy Bale, our longest-serving Board Member and the backbone of DCC for so many years. Her attention to Policy and Issues is invaluable! Her passion for protecting wild spaces and their inhabitants is infinite and contagious. And her willingness to guide and instruct and heave and lead has been essential to Denali Citizens Council.

And much gratitude to all of our members, past and present, for the support you have provided the various iterations of Denali Citizens Council over its 52 years! I can’t imagine where DCC will be in a year or another 50, especially in these difficult times of upheaval and climatic and political uncertainty and degradation.

It heartens me to read and hear from and interact with so many of you who care enough to keep trying. The Board Members of DCC are here for you and for this Park and, though we are volunteers, we hope that our voices will continue to inform and resound within you and join with yours in proclaiming the beauty of Alaska. We’re always interested in hearing your comments and criticisms, what we do that works for you, and what we can do to improve. We are open to adaptation as we continue our efforts to engage with the Denali Community, whether you still live in Alaska or may have moved elsewhere, but continue to support us and our mission.

Lastly, watch for the return of a print DCC Newsletter soon! Please send your current snail mail and email addresses to dcc@denalicitizens.org in order to receive it, even if you haven’t been a member for a while.

Thank you and much love!

Scott Richardson

scott@denalicitizens.org