Say No to Mining in Alaska's Pristine Bristol Bay!

A Canadian mining corporation wants to create one of North America’s largest open pit gold and copper mines in the heart of Alaska’s Bristol Bay - a wonderland of fish-filled lakes, rivers and streams - home to some of the last great wild salmon runs and rainbow trout.

At the core of Pebble Mine, covering some 15 square miles, would be an open pit measuring about two miles long, a mile and a half wide and 1,700 feet deep. Over its period of operation, the mine would produce an estimated 3 billion tons of waste!

The rivers and creeks of Bristol Bay provide pristine spawning grounds for all five species of Pacific Salmon. The freshwater lakes offer abundant habitat for Rainbow Trout. What's more, Lake Iliamna, just south of the pebble mining claim, is the largest body of freshwater in Alaska.

Bristol Bay is also home to the world's largest commercial wild salmon fishery. The harvest and processing of Bristol Bay fish generates nearly $320 million a year and employs about 12,500 people.

Tell the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to keep their prohibition of rock mining in Bristol Bay. OUR FISH AND CLEAN WATER ARE FAR MORE IMPORTANT THAN MINER'S PROFITS!



U.S. Bureau of Land Management,

We, the undersigned citizens, are deeply concerned with proposals to transform vast tracts of land in Southwest Alaska's Bristol Bay watershed into a massive mining district. Bristol Bay is a national and international treasure; its salmon, trout and wilderness character are worth far more than the gold that may lie below the land's surface.

We respectfully request that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management maintain the current prohibition on hard rock mine prospecting and development on the publicly-owned land it manages in the Bristol Bay area. We further request the State of Alaska reject water withdrawal, dam construction, and other permit applications recently submitted by mining companies. If these permits were granted, mining companies could possibly dewater critical salmon rivers and trophy trout streams and destroy valuable habitat.

The Bristol Bay salmon fishery generates an estimated $320 million per year, with sport fishing contributing over $60 million to that total. Proposals to turn the region into a huge mining district, complete with tailings-filled lakes and access roads across the wilderness, are short-sighted and expose the region's incredible trout and salmon resources to what we feel is an unacceptable level of risk.

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