Protecting Bristol Bay

The proposed Pebble mine poses a deep and enduring threat to the Bristol Bay watershed, a region that has nourished the Alaska Native Peoples of the area for thousands of years and that feeds people around the world right now.

Photo by Amy Gulick.

Bristol Bay supports multiple thriving salmon fisheries, including the world’s largest sockeye salmon run. The watershed provides food for Alaska communities, and jobs for Alaskans and people throughout the Northwest United States.

Pebble’s proposal would put a massive mine with toxic storage ponds at the headwaters of the entire Bristol Bay watershed. The people of Bristol Bay and Alaska have opposed it from the beginning. Yet Pebble’s unrelenting effort to extract profits for a few rich Canadians has accelerated during Trump’s administration.

We won in court before to stop Pebble from harassing opposing voices. We are in court again because the Environmental Protection Agency’s Headquarters caved to Pebble, rolling back its sound, science-based protections, without any good reasons. Trustees is part of a coalition of tribal organizations, commercial and sport fishing groups, conservation organizations, and other Alaskans who oppose Pebble and have protested its unwelcome advances for over a decade.

We will defend Bristol Bay and its communities from Pebble for long as long as it and other mega-mines threaten the health of Alaska’s water, fish, animals, and Alaskans and their ways of life.