Born and raised in Bristol Bay, in southwest Alaska. I learned how to live off the land. Fishing commercially during the summer to provide income for the coming winter months. Subsistence fishing during the late part of the summer and early fall, to store fish, whether it be smoked fish, filleted fish, or dried, for the long winter ahead. This is a lifestyle I was raised in, and wouldn't change it for all the gold in the world. During the winter months, the land also provided us with plenty of caribou and moose for food. Other animals such as beaver, wolf, wolverine, and mink to provide for fur for warm clothing. Please keep in mind that we only took what we needed and nothing went to waste. Our ancestors have lived this way for 1000's of years and the traditions have been handed down for generations and I hope to keep this tradition going for generations to come.
Northern Dynasty Mines, a Jr Canadien mining company, announced their plans to obtain mining permits in the Bristol Bay region. They propose the largest open pit gold/copper/molybdenum mine in North America. With that, a 20 sq. mile tailings pond to hold toxic chemicals such as cyanide and sulfuric acid to hold mining waste. An earthen dam, once completed will be the largest dam in the world, bigger than the Three Gorges Dam in China, bigger than Hoover Dam, Grand Coulee Dam combined, all this to hold the toxic mine tailings. The tailings pond lays right over the Upper and Lower Talarik Creeks, the most prized trophy trout area in Alaska. Water rights were applied for, for the Koktuli River, where the largest Chinook(King) Salmon return in the world goes to spawn. Bristol Bay is the single largest wild Sockeye Salmon fishery in the world, not to mention the single largest wild Chinook Salmon sport fisheries in the world. Copper is proven to be the single most destructive element in destroying wild salmon and many other fresh water fish stocks. Many other toxic chemicals, arsenic, zinc, and many others are most likely found in mine sites through out the world. Zortman-Landusky Mine in Montana, Summitville Mine in Colorado, just to name a couple have provided nothing but trouble for local streams and rivers, and taxpayers are footing the bill for clean up and reclaiming efforts for those regions. The list goes on and on for the destructive elements for gold and copper mining.
Some other sites to check out http://renewableresourcescoalition.org and http://bristolbayalliance.com are just a couple. This one site is a petition site being sent to Bureau of Land Management http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/387663692?z00m=9406201&z00m=9406201 I ask that you check them out, and if you want to help the efffort to stop the destruction, please sign the petition and Thank You for hearing me out.
