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Save Alaska's Wild Heritage in Bristol Bay

Target: Bureau of Land Management
Sponsored by: Campaign for America's Wilderness

Greatest Wild Salmon Fishery on Earth Threatened by Poisonous Open-Pit Mining!

Alaska's Bristol Bay supports the largest sockeye salmon population in the world and is rich in wildlife including moose, brown bear and caribou. The surrounding wild lands are beautiful and pristine, which is what makes this area so uncommonly vital to wildlife and a thriving fishing and tourism economy.

Photo: Proposed Pebble Mine site; ï¿½Erin McKittrick

But Bristol Bay is threatened by plans for the largest open-pit gold and copper mine in North America, Pebble Mine, to be situated in the Bay's backcountry headwaters. To make matters worse, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is planning to revoke existing protections on another 3.6 million acres of public lands in this watershed, thereby making them available for commercial hard rock mining. This type of mining uses cyanide, sulfuric acid, and other toxic chemicals, poisons that are fatal to juvenile salmon and trout. The development and ensuing toxic waste could be devastating to wildlife and the local fishing and tourism economy.

Tell the BLM to abandon plans to open millions of acres in the Bristol Bay Watershed to mining!

deadline: 12-7-2007
goal: 17,500

13,473
signatures!

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I am writing to express my disappointment with the draft Resource Management Plan (RMP) for the Bristol Bay and Goodnews Bay watersheds. I oppose the plan's preferred alternative D, which recommends opening over a million acres of pristine wild lands in these watersheds to hard rock mining, a dangerous move for fish and people living in the region. Not only would a mining district mar the region's remarkably wild and beautiful landscape, but it risks grave consequences for the health of all living things downstream.

The hard rock mining technique that would be employed by the proposed Pebble Mine uses cyanide and toxic chemicals that inevitably end up in the water supply. Even minute concentrations of these obvious poisons are fatal for the juvenile salmon and trout which spawn in the downstream BLM-managed rivers, not to mention other wildlife and people that consume the water. Bristol Bay is the largest salmon fishery in the world! This valuable fishery accounts for almost a third of Alaska's fishing economy, and is enormously dependent upon the watershed's pristine water quality. Mining in the headwaters of Bristol Bay is a losing gamble from a health and economic perspective.

I support alternative C's recommendation that the BLM lands in the Bristol Bay watershed be designated an Area of Critical Environmental Concern, to protect their superlative natural values. BLM lands in the Bay planning area should remain off-limits to mineral development in order to guarantee the protection of wildlife habitat and to ensure opportunities for the use and enjoyment of these resources by our nation's future generations.

Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Address]

We signed the “Save Alaska's Wild Heritage in Bristol Bay” petition!

# 13,483:

2:57 pm PDT, Apr 23, Desiree Diaz, Illinois

# 13,482:

8:34 am PDT, Apr 23, Anja Gundermann, Germany

# 13,481:

1:03 pm PDT, Apr 21, Name not displayed, New York

# 13,480:

3:25 pm PDT, Apr 20, Becky Visco, Texas

# 13,479:

2:16 pm PDT, Apr 20, Cynthia Parker, Virginia

# 13,478:

6:28 pm PDT, Apr 17, Amanda Case, Oklahoma
This is one of the last wild areas, please do not ruin it!

# 13,477:

9:00 pm PDT, Apr 13, Jenny Vegan, United States Minor Outlying Islands
Please protect this treasure!

# 13,476:

2:39 pm PDT, Apr 8, Dawn Drewry, Virginia

# 13,475:

1:47 am PDT, Apr 6, Can Atik, Turkey

# 13,474:

9:05 pm PDT, Apr 5, Shawn Williamson, California

# 13,473:

3:42 pm PDT, Mar 30, Silky Wyld, Wisconsin

# 13,472:

6:58 pm PDT, Mar 28, Don Gossett, Minnesota

# 13,471:

4:12 pm PDT, Mar 28, Cloe Virginia Hubbard, Australia

# 13,470:

4:10 am PDT, Mar 22, Art Deco, Maine

# 13,469:

3:52 pm PDT, Mar 17, Gabrielle Bertrand, France

# 13,468:

9:39 pm PDT, Mar 14, Shannon Sultan, Wisconsin

# 13,467:

10:09 am PDT, Mar 14, Ginger Geronimo, Alabama

# 13,466:

8:52 pm PDT, Mar 10, Name not displayed, Colorado
Please don't make an irrevocable mistake!!

# 13,465:

8:14 am PDT, Mar 10, Name not displayed, Texas

# 13,464:

6:59 am PDT, Mar 10, Ryan Wheeler, Michigan

# 13,463:

5:44 am PDT, Mar 10, Name not displayed, Michigan

# 13,462:

1:24 pm PST, Mar 8, BiLL Fowlie, Maine

# 13,461:

4:10 pm PST, Mar 7, Name not displayed, Michigan

# 13,460:

3:35 pm PST, Mar 7, Name not displayed, Michigan

# 13,459:

1:10 pm PST, Mar 7, Frederic Heller, Michigan
Why does this region need a mine? I guided the waters of Bristol Bay in the summer of 2000 - what a magical, roadless place. I am strongly against the mine. Leave it the way it is.

# 13,458:

12:53 pm PST, Mar 7, Dave Atkinson, Michigan

# 13,457:

12:46 pm PST, Mar 7, Donald Richards II, Michigan

# 13,456:

12:37 pm PST, Mar 7, Marc Montpetit, Michigan
This is one of the last amazing natural ecosystems in the world. It should be enjoyed and preserved by generations to come.

# 13,455:

12:24 pm PST, Mar 7, Rick Gibbons, Michigan

# 13,454:

12:16 pm PST, Mar 7, Jeremy Bachusz, Michigan

# 13,453:

12:13 pm PST, Mar 7, Joel Shupe, Michigan

# 13,452:

12:06 pm PST, Mar 7, Micah Baumgartner, Michigan

# 13,451:

11:54 am PST, Mar 7, Eric Thompson, Michigan

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Save Alaska's Wild Heritage in Bristol Bay

This petition has been closed.