Around 50 leaders — including U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski — will gather at the Chilkat Center next week for Alaska Outdoor Alliance’s (AOA) 7th annual statewide conference, which participants call “Confluence.”

The summit will be facilitated by representatives from Spruce Root — the community development arm of SeaAlaska — and the discussion will focus on “regenerative economies.” Murkowski is scheduled to address attendees on Wednesday.

AOA executive director Lee Hart said attendees will include federal, state and tribal land managers; representatives from the Department of the Interior; the Alaska director of the USDA rural development program; representatives from native groups, borough assemblies, parks foundations and economic development corporations; and other leaders in outdoor recreation.

Hart also said that leaders from the Yukon Territory and British Columbia will be participating for the first time. The United Nations World Tourism Organization recently designated Yukon Territory as a “sustainable travel observatory,” and representatives will explain to their Alaskan colleagues what this means. They will also discuss other relevant issues, such as changes in US border regulations and their effects on transnational rafting trips.

Hart said she hopes the event will allow leaders to “identify what the priorities are for the outdoor recreation sector.” Outdoor recreation is the fifth-largest employer in the state and Alaska has the highest percentage of outdoor recreators of any state, she said.

Diana Rhoades, Director of Community Engagement at the Anchorage Parks Foundation, has attended Confluence for the past six years. She said the conference has helped the outdoor recreation sector mobilize and bring its interests before the state legislature; beginning in 2018, Hart and AOA has organized an annual outdoor recreation lobby day.

“It’s the same kind of networking done for any other trade industry, like the oil industry for instance,” Rhoades said. “Before Confluence, I don’t think that Alaskans — tourism businesses, hiking enthusiasts, trails maintenance people — realized the potential of the industry.”

The Haines Borough will host a welcome dinner on the first night of the summit — co-organized by tourism director Steve Auch and chamber director Andrew Letchworth — and the Chilkoot Indian Association will host the second night’s dinner. All the other meals will be catered by local companies including the Frog Lady, Camino and Adventure Harvest.

This is the first time the conference will be held in Southeast. It has previously convened in Talkeetna, Anchorage and Valdez.