Measuring What Matters: How Will We Know If Alaska's Outdoors Are Thriving?

After two months of conversations about infrastructure, stewardship, culture, livelihoods, health, governance, and even the voices of the more-than-human world, the Regenerative Outdoor Visioning Project arrived at a deceptively simple question:

If Alaska became the most regenerative outdoor economy on Earth, how would we know?

It sounds like a question about metrics. In reality, it turned into a conversation about values.

Guest weaver Rachel Roy, Executive Director of the Sitka Chamber of Commerce, shared Sitka's experience navigating the opportunities and challenges of tourism. While visitor numbers and economic activity remain important, Sitka has increasingly shifted its attention toward housing, childcare, workforce development, stewardship, and quality of life.

One story stood out: Rachel described Sitka's Nakahiti Dance Program, where tourism revenue helps support the perpetuation of Tlingit culture and creates opportunities for young people to learn songs, dances, language, and traditions. She reflected on her daughter, whose bank account might not impress a conventional economist but whose cultural wealth is immense.

That idea lingered throughout the conversation. How do we measure cultural wealth? Connection to place? A sense of belonging? Ahhhhh moments? A visitor whose experience in Alaska changes the way they see the world?

Kaleb Callahan of Kodiak picked up the thread from a different angle. He challenged participants to think beyond GDP, noting that traditional economic measures do a good job tracking activity but often overlook things like environmental health, volunteerism, beauty, education, and well-being. He introduced alternative frameworks such as the Genuine Progress Indicator and Human Development Index that attempt to paint a fuller picture of prosperity.

Next we asked participants to imagine Alaska in the year 2075. What would convince us that we had succeeded?

Across breakout groups, the answers were surprisingly consistent. People talked about healthy wildlife habitat, thriving salmon runs, protected Arctic ecosystems, strong local and Indigenous economies, well-maintained trails and parks, and tourism that operates within community-defined limits. They talked about passing culture from one generation to the next and helping young people understand their relationship to the lands and waters that sustain us.

What emerged wasn't a list of metrics as much as a picture of thriving. A thriving regenerative outdoor economy isn't just one that generates revenue. It's one that leaves communities stronger, cultures more vibrant, ecosystems healthier, and future generations better equipped to care for the places they inherit.

As we move into the next phase of this project and begin shaping a draft Regenerative Outdoors Framework for Alaska, the session served as a reminder that the future we measure is often the future we create. The challenge now is figuring out how to identify and measure the things that matter most.