#fly fishng

Original painting, watercolors, 18 to 24 cm (frame) on heavy aquarellic paper. Only one tone sepia. Website illustration, sold.

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We had a busy and productive DC lobby trip that we wraped up today.  It was an incredible experience and I want to thank Trout Unlimited for giving me the opportunity to represent Sage, the fly fishing industry to stand up for what is important: the fish, the health of the Bristol Bay watershed, and our customers (Lodge owners, seasonal guides, and anglers worldwide who have fished or dream about someday fishing this magnificent fishery.  I will be following up over the next week with follow up information that you can participate in - especially through contacting your State's legislators about this issue.  Now that the EPA is engaging in a scientific review, now is a critical time to show support of this, reiterating why they should care.  We learned a great deal too, and here are just some thoughts that have been rattling in my brain...

Despite the proposed Pebble Mine's destructive characteristics, PLP (Pebble Limited Partnership) will spend millions of dollars this year advertising to Alaskans that they can have both - a healthy salmon run (no harm) and a mine.  They will spend millions trying to convince Alaskans that the largest mine in North America and one of the largest mines in the world can be developed in the tundra and wetlands of Bristol Bay, swallowing crucial spawning grounds that provide habitat for the world's most productive sockeye salmon fishery on Earth.  They will spend this money to change their minds. But you see, Alaskans are smarter than that.

A recent poll by Hellenthal and Associates of Anchorage showed some interesting findings:

90 percent of respondents said they believe you can be pro-development and still oppose the Pebble Mine (80% of these respondents were for developing ANWR)

66.5 percent of respondents believe the Pebble Mine is a serious or somewhat serious threat to Bristol Bay's salmon

66.2 percent believe Alaskans cannot trust the mining industry when they say the Pebble Mine and salmon fishing can coexist

Over 55 percent think the mine permitting process should be independently reviewed, rather than trusting the State to protect salmon fishing

78.2 percent said they would choose renewable resources like salmon over non-renewable resources like copper

I understand that no two mines are alike, but saying there can be both is hypothetical at best and is not supported by science or history.  And no where on Earth has a mine this size been placed on top a resource this nationally significant. Ever.

Take the Bingham Canyon Mine in Utah, outside of Salt Lake City for example.  In production for over 100 years, it is the deepest open-pit mine in the world at .75 miles deep and 1.5 miles wide covering 1900 acres.  The Bingham mine is higher grade than Pebble ever will be, so should be less toxic. However, over it's life it has already cause significant groundwater contamination in the aquifer down and away from the operation, impacting over 80 square miles in the South Salt Lake County. To date, Kennecott Utah Copper (UK based Rio Tinto) has spent $450 million dollars remediating 10,000 acres of the total 40,000 acres impacted by the mining operation.  The mine is expected to close in 2019.  That's our nations biggest and best example. 

For the Pebble Mine, it comes down to type, scale and place. 

Type: open pit mines are incredibly consumptive on natural resources. The toxic waste from this mine will have to be treated in perpetuity (Perpetual Remediation)

Scale: If you take all of the mines in Alaska and Bingham mine, and throw them all into the pit that Pebble will create over time - They wouldn't even fill 1/3 of it.  It will create over 10,000,000,000 (billion) tons of waste over it's lifetime - that's 3,000 tons of mine waste for every person on the planet!

Place: As wild salmon disappear around the globe, Bristol Bay continues to produce the world's largest sockeye salmon fishery, one of the world's largest king salmon runs, and trophy rainbow trout. Not to mention the support this entire eco system provides for life! -from bears, to birds, to plankton, to bugs, to people.  Over the life of the mine, Pebble is offering 2,000 jobs during construction, and 1,000 jobs once the mine gets running.  The sport and commercial fishing industry in the Bay alone supports 12,000 jobs and a $445 million industry, year after year. 

6 native corporations, every commercial fishing operation and every sport fishing operation in the region does not want this mine.  Additionally, over 20 national organizations, 55 Jewelers (including Tiffany & Co and Zales), over 400 outdoor industry entities, and over 200 chefs and restaraunts throughout to country  are opposed to this mine. 

Bristol Bay is a national treasure. This is simply the Wrong Mine in the Wrong Place.