Drive for financial gain threatening priceless wild area

There are some things in the world that are more valuable than money, things for which there are no price tags.

Two years ago, I wrote of a major threat to a priceless section of Alaska. Protests continue and the debate rages on, while plans have move forward for the proposed “Pebble Mine.”

As a fishing guide for three summers in Alaska in an area accessible only by boat or float plane, I saw bald eagles, grizzly bears and moose routinely. Once I tracked a lynx along the river. Frequently, I ran across wolf tracks and was even awoken one night while camping by a chorus of wolves 100 yards away.

Just below our camp, the Koktuli River was full of king salmon, sockeyes, chum salmon, rainbow trout, arctic grayling, dolly varden, and pike. It reminded me of our own Driftwood Branch, except for the wolves and grizzlies running its banks, as well as the much larger fish, and more of them.

While we were flying over the headwaters of the Koktuli, I was able to view one of the most spectacular occurrences in all of nature -- the great caribou migration. By the pilot’s estimates, the herd held about 50,000 individuals. It was about a quarter mile wide and seemingly stretched forever out across the treeless tundra.

Imagine my dismay when I learned of a proposal for the world’s largest open pit mine to be located in the headwaters of the Koktuli, right where I had witnessed the miraculous caribou migration. This proposed mine would be smack dab in the middle of the Bristol Bay drainage, the most productive salmon fishery in the world.

Developers want to cash in on copper, gold, and molybdenum deposits along this large roadless tract, estimated to be valued at over $300 billion.

Both underground and open pit mines are proposed. The open pit would be approximately two miles wide and several thousand feet deep.

Five earthen dams, the largest of which would be over 700 feet high and four miles long, are proposed for the headwaters of the Koktuli to hold the toxic tailings and waste chemicals produced by the mining operation.

This mining process would produce cyanide, other toxic heavy metals, and acid mine drainage to be stored in the enormous lagoon. Alaska is one of the most earthquake active zones in the world. Should this behemoth dam break, it would destroy the Bristol Bay ecosystem.

Bristol Bay supports salmon runs numbering tens of millions of fish. It is the most important salmon fishery in the world. The Bristol Bay drainage has the largest sockeye salmon runs in the world.

As you would expect, the Bristol Bay supports an enormous fishery, with numerous lodges and outfitters located within its streams. Many streams are fantastic trophy rainbow trout fisheries. Between commercial and sport fishing, the Bristol Bay drainage contributes over $400 million annually to Alaska’s economy.

These are priceless national treasures. It makes me sick to my stomach to even think of the Pebble Mine and its access roads occupying this sacred ground.

Caribou calving ground and trout and salmon spawning waters would be physically destroyed, while the toxic storage areas would threaten the entire Bristol Bay fishery. Its demise would have far reaching economic and ecological consequences.

If the Pebble Mine permitting goes through, it will be a great national tragedy, setting off a second gold rush with large corporate companies destroying Alaska’s wilderness in their greed.