Scientific Reports Indicate the Proposed Chuitna Coal Mine Would Destroy Cook Inlet Salmon Streams
New scientific reports offer critical information about the damage Chuitna coal strip-mine would cause
Scientific Reports Indicate the Proposed Chuitna Coal Mine Would Destroy Cook Inlet Salmon Streams
Three new scientific reports, commissioned by Trustees for Alaska and Cook Inletkeeper and prepared for the Chuitna Citizens Coalition, conclude that critical salmon fisheries along the Chuit River will suffer severe long-term damage and never fully recover from the impacts of PacRim Coal LP’s proposed Chuitna coal strip-mine. The scientists who completed the analyses concluded that PacRim’s plan to strip-mine for coal directly through 11 miles of salmon-bearing streams would significantly damage local wetlands and headwater streams in an area 45 miles west of Anchorage. Restoration of the fragile and valuable wetlands and streams that feed the salmon-rich Chuit River would be virtually impossible, they determined.
The Press Release, Reports and Executive Summaries:
Chuitna Coal Mine Baseline Monitoring and Restoration Plan Review by Dr. Mark Wipfli, Associate Professor of Aquatic Ecology & Fisheries, Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks,an expert on riverine ecology and food webs.
Report on Chuitna Coal Project Aquatic Studies and Fish and Wildlife Protection Plan, by Lance Trasky, retired habitat biologist, Alaska Department of Fish and Game
Report on Chuitna Coal Project of PacRim Coal by Dr. Margaret A. Palmer, Professor and Director of the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, University of Maryland, author of “The Foundation of Restoration Ecology” and expert on watershed science and stream ecology and restoration.
Executive summaries for the three reports can be found here
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