Nels Ure

Nels Ure grew up in coastal Alaskan communities where the rhythms of life were set by fish, weather, and water. As a second-generation commercial salmon fisherman in Bristol Bay, he learned early that wild salmon are not simply a species to be managed but the thread connecting economic survival, ecological health, and cultural identity across generations. That understanding has never left him.

Before Yale, Nels channeled that conviction into action. He testified, organized, and led campaigns in the fight for permanent protections of the Bristol Bay watershed, working with diverse coalitions to defend one of the world's most productive wild salmon ecosystems from large-scale sulfide mining. He documented those landscapes and the people who depend on them through his work as a professional photographer specializing in remote Alaskan environments and industries, developing a practitioner's eye for the intimate, often invisible relationships between humans, economies, and the natural world.

That same curiosity drives his broader passion for the Arctic, where the stakes of climate change, resource extraction, and community resilience converge in ways the rest of the world is only beginning to reckon with.

Nels holds a B.A. in Climate and Arctic Sustainability from the University of Alaska Fairbanks (2025) and is currently a Master of Environmental Management candidate at the Yale School of the Environment, Class of 2027. He came to Yale to build the policy, financial, and systems-level tools to match the depth of commitment he already carries. He is a proud father of two.