hen the COVID-19 pandemic made social distancing compulsory, many organizations were forced to implement programs to allow staff to work from home. They had little choice as the world responded to the health crisis by locking down and staying home.

For instance, Anchorage’s “hunker-down” order initially required non-critical businesses, such as hair salons, barber shops, clothing stores, gyms, and movie theaters, to close their premises and asked residents to stay home as much as possible. The restrictions have since eased, but all businesses—and people—are expected to follow physical distancing and other safety practices to the maximum extent possible.

ife at the far end of the supply chain can be a challenge even during normal times, as anyone who has ever encountered wilted lettuce at the grocery store when a barge fails to arrive on time knows. It is particularly challenging during a pandemic when even major population centers struggled to acquire essential supplies.

But despite the challenges of geography and a global health crisis, Alaska performed well in a key pandemic response indicator this spring—the state’s ability to acquire and administer coronavirus tests.

n the wake of celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2019, the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority has stepped in to provide $1.5 million in grants to organizations responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Last Frontier.

“We are concerned about the near- and long-term impacts of the pandemic on mental healthcare,” Alaska Mental Health Trust CEO Mike Abbott explains. “Providers that are doing the day-to-day work with our beneficiaries are in many cases struggling because they’re losing revenue, operational requirements are different and typically more expensive, and they are adapting to telemedicine where they might not have used that technology much before.”

atanuska Brewing Company was on the path to experiencing record sales at the start of 2020. And then COVID-19 hit.

“It was probably the best January and February we’ve ever seen,” owner Matthew Tomter says. “Then we see Seattle shutting down, and we realized this was about to happen.”

The arrival of COVID-19 led to sweeping health mandates from state and local governments that resulted in closed doors at all businesses except those deemed essential in an attempt to “flatten the curve” of the virus.

rashing oil prices and banking investment policies that exclude many Arctic projects are changing the short-term and long-term landscape for development in the Arctic.

“Our Environmental and Social Risk Management framework and policies are a critical part of our due diligence requirements in sensitive industries such as oil and gas, mining, and consumer finance, and they help us identify, evaluate, and manage the environmental and social risks associated with our lending and investments,” Wells Fargo announced in a statement. “Wells Fargo does not directly finance oil and gas projects in the Arctic region, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR)—part of a larger 2018 risk-based decision to forego participation in any project-specific transaction in the region.”

hy does a company invest billions of dollars in a remote and frigid place thousands of miles from market and connected to the rest of the world solely by air and a skinny 400-mile dirt road?

For ConocoPhillips, the answer is simple.

“We produce oil here because that’s where the oil is,” says Natalie Lowman, director of communications for ConocoPhillips, Alaska’s largest oil and gas producer.

esidential construction in Alaska runs on the same seasonal boom-and-bust cycle that dictates work in many sectors of the Last Frontier. Deep, cold winters can leave the dirt too hard and cold to break ground until May, resulting in short seasons for general contractors preparing to build new homes before winter sets in again.

“We have a really challenging building season with limits to the amount of time you’ve got to build a house,” Chad Wilson from Wilson & Wilson says. “We’ve got such a short window. I mean, one minute, there’s snow on the ground, the next it’s 80°F.”

he Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act granted Alaska Native corporations two significant assets: cash (in compensation for land lost) and land. With those assets, the Alaska Native regional, village, and urban corporations were tasked to provide for their shareholders—how they did so was left up to them. While the money was an immediate necessity, the majority of Alaska Native corporations have found enduring success through leveraging their lands, and for some that’s taken the form of real estate investment or services.

Alaska Native corporations have invested in a wide range of real estate-related lines of business—from tourism infrastructure and retail centers to real estate investment and management. Below is compiled, by region, a sampling of the many ways that Alaska Native corporations have invested to the benefit of their shareholders and their regions.

nnie Brace is the founder and owner of Corso Graphics, which specializes in graphic design, fine art, illustration, and “a splash of photography.” Brace is also the phenomenal artist of our cover this month; we reached out to her because we were drawn to her brilliant use of color, the high energy of her work, and how clearly Alaska inspires her.