Karen Quiros
Stop Pebble Mine!

Michelle Britton
It is SO beautiful there and one day i hope to at least see it in person. EVERYONE needs to stop the mining and drilling in ALASKA so the pureity of ALL LIFE can remain as it is and not line someones pocket book!! To anyone that would want to trade my brain tumor for a trip there i will trade you because i can not afford to go see this beautiful land except in pictures. Thank you for posting all these beautiful places that i can only dream of seeing in person one day.Keep safe on all your adventures

Billie
hey wats up im workin on a project wohoo not! lol

Mrs. Norris
ha ha funny pictures, there is more to Alaska than the pictures you took....ha ha those are such silly run down pictures...

mathew W
i like the tast of balls.

Hannah
I just heard about this mine proposal this morning on a local radio station in Portland, Oregon. Needless to say I was devastated by the news and came home to research. My sister, a resident of Juneau, said that the citizens passed it in this last election. Is this true, and can anybody in their right mind let this happen. I need more info. In fact I think the public needs more info. Not just info on how many jobs it may provide (sorry job hunters) but information on the environmental effects that will come if this mine happens. I'm so angry......off to more research. Thank you for your information on this site.

Lee
I like the photos, I like the land, I like the hike but I like the mine better...

Julie Kellogg
I am origionally from SDakota, but have been visiting Aleknagik, in the Wood Tikchik area since 2000. I worked a salmon run, my cousin invited me up and I love the area so much, i come back every year. I would hate to see any of Alaska destroyed. SD is looking at its first oil refinery, they want 10 to 12 million gallons of our water daily. I Have lobbyed for ak on issues involving the Tongass, and Anwr. I would like to know more.

Robin
Amazing journey and photos. Don't know how you put up with your 'squiters for that long though. They look worse than the dreaded midgies in Scotland or black flies in northern Michigan. As for regulations, the U.S. Environmental Impact Statements (EIS), which are supposed to evaluate potential impact on communities, have about as much teeth as the administration gives them. If the state govt supports the mine, chances are it will go ahead. The BLM has a terrible track record of protecting the environment and the National Forest Service has capitulated more and more in recent years. And even when local agents, such as Fish and Wildlife, disagree, they're usually ignored - or fired. There is nothing I know of to keep a mining operation from walking away at any point, declaring bankruptcy and leaving cleanup to the state - e.g. ASARCO in AZ. And the Superfund is terribly underfunded and unable to deal with the backlog it now has. And there is no way on God's green earth that an operation of this scale can prevent accidents, tailings pollution and contamination of ground water. To stop this is an uphill battle, but keep it up! Of course, with a governor who doesn't believe global warming is man made and polar bears aren't endangered, you've got your work cut out for you. (Wonder what her dad, the science teacher, thinks.) Having your gov nominated for VP may help you though because it has drawn national attention to AK.

John
http://www.ftknox.info/Photos_and_Videos.php

Kevin Paulson
http://www.huntinglife.com/blog/detail/huntinglife-and-sportsmans-alliance-for-alaska-team-up-for-conservation

Kathy Bartlum-David
Love the photos!

Regina Wright
When is it ever going to be enough!!! Money and greed with no regard to the damage that this mine would do to the wildlife in that area is todays mindset of large corporations. All of the money that would be generated from this mine is just not worth it. Whoever is in charge trying to push this through, ask yourself that simple question, when is it going to be enough? Leave it be, for your children, and your grandchildren, and generations to come, for the love of God.

Connie
http://www.ultralightbackpackingonline.info

no
http://no

Mark Christiansen
http://www.troutbumflyfishingco.com

Bernita Woods
Just look what they have done with Red Dog Mine. Biggest EPA problems. They will destroy our area.

Charlie Crouch
We have got to stop this mine everybody. The money no matter how much is not worth the gauranteed environmental damage.

MAGA MGBADA ETE
I DEY O O O O GUYS O O I DEY O O O O GUYS O O I DEY O O O O GUYS O O I DEY O O O O GUYS O O I DEY O O O O GUYS O O I DEY O O O O GUYS O O I DEY O O O O GUYS O O I DEY O O O O GUYS O O I DEY O O O O GUYS O O I DEY O O O O GUYS O O I DEY O O O O GUYS O O I DEY O O O O GUYS O O I DEY O O O O GUYS O O I DEY O O O O GUYS O O I DEY O O O O GUYS O O I DEY O O O O GUYS O O I DEY O O O O GUYS O O I DEY O O O O GUYS O O I DEY O O O O GUYS O O I DEY O O O O GUYS O O I DEY O O O O GUYS O O I DEY O O O O GUYS O O I DEY O O O O GUYS O O I DEY O O O O GUYS O O I DEY O O O O GUYS O O

John Rust
http://wildlifesightings.org

Bill Steele
What a wonderful adventure,. Trek on-

ken
I'll probably never get to Alaska, but O would like to think we could preserve the wilderness for future generations. The problem is that MONEY controls the world and there is a lot of un-tapped riches in Alaska...and probably Canada. Good Luck !

sigrid
Brian is a Miner.

Dio
the pebble mine is a bad idea. sounds like a couple of greedy Canadians trying to steal and kill our resources.

d funk
Thanks for putting all of this information togeteher.Jobs ? How many,for how long at what cost ? And after the mine ? I'm one who would "benefit" from a full-time year-round ob with health insurance,a rare thing in smalltown AK.We need to find another way,non-destructive jobs.

Brian
I would like everyone to know that that they should get the right info before running with somthing like this..The EPA will not allow any mine to build in a area that will impact the env. The feds monitor mines harder than any other companies. If you are so against mining then don't drive a car or have anything metal or plastic or computers. By the way fiber optics have gold conectors.IF IT IS NOT GROWN IT IS MINED. Let go of the way it used to be before all the regulations and wake up to how it is ran now.

Owen
I have worked up in Bristol Bay before and seen the huge thriving fishing industry. Great work I hope this educates millions of people. I totaly support what you guys are doing. keep up the awsome work.

breanna
this website is really good. the interactive map makes you feel as if you are actually on the journey!

Jennifer Hooper
I worked many summers on the Nush and have seen the beauty and abundance of the region. I have also returned to see my four-wheeler tracks imprinted in the tundra a year later. This is a fragile and complex environment, and any sort of mitigation proposed by the mine is not only short sighted, but ultimately unattainable. SW AK has RENEWABLE resource - salmon. My friends in AK are shocked at the prices of Bristol Bay sockeye in Washington, but people are willing to pay it. There are not many sustainable, wild fishery systems left, and it would be a shame to sacrifice an entire ecosystem and a indefinitely renewable resource to put rings on fingers. Wild salmon, marketed for what it is worth, is the way to move forward. FISH PICKER,NOT A GOLD DIGGER

John Scott
http://www.ftknox.info/

no pebble
http://nota

You're a joke
http://blah blah

Peachie Savok
Keep up the good work, make it happen. Jobs for poeple.

Jessica
I wanted to thank you for taking the time to put together such a comprehensive website.

Bill Erickson
“Seems like we could be better at separating good from evil To build a mine where once there stretched endless tundra is not to solve a problem but to create a more complex one. Benign in intention, practical in judgment, efficient in technique, the land will be razed, and big corporate money has intruded once again with little regard to customs and lifestyle of our Native Alaskans. A group that coexisted with caribou, moose and fish for hundreds of years, and that in its own ways played an important role in the dynamic mosaic of Bristol Bay, will not only compromise its subsistence lifestyle but give up its pride and heritage as well. It does little good for the village elders to bemoan the politic of civilization, which seems to have a monopoly of triumphs. Those sudden chances and slow surrender are the most telling barometer of their steady decline. The greatest challenge facing the people of Bristol Bay is the challenge of distinguishing reality from propaganda and false promises from the truth. It seems that we may be the only species that has so many opportunities to choose between good and evil, and the only one that chooses so badly.” Eberhard Brunner

don rickard
It seems that blowing up refineries and killing people, destroying pipelines, contaminating lands, and spilling oil in the oceans would be a desire of a terrorist, which we continue to encourage from entities that do not even have a stake in the preservation of this country. ---------Don Rickard--------

Dee Longenbaugh
http://www.observatorybooks.com

no pebble don rickard
we made the mistake with BP blowing up refineries and corroding pipelines and spilling our oil on the ground and now we are going to permit other outsiders to do the same in the hazardous materials mining sector?

Courtney B.
Gold, contrary to what seems to tossed around very cavalierly when referring to this site, is not a vital "natural resource." It's a commodity, and it's applications, other than as currency, are remarkably limited. Selling your soul for a yellow rock is reprehensible, and in the grand scheme of things disastrously short sited. The ramifications of this mine extend far beyond it's local region. Each trip I take to Alaska creates revenue not only in the immediate area that I visit, but to Anchorage, Juneau, Sitka, Ketchikan, Cordova,... If a true economic analysis were to account for all beneficiaries of those visiting Bristol Bay, it's impact would quickly begin to level the disparity between $100 billion in gold versus $600 million in salmon fishing. This is of course a small factor anyway, when one considers the loss of wildlife, and impact on the native peoples that have subsisted here for thousands of years. Places that are truly wild, are rare enough, and rapidly vanishing. Why put your foot on the accelerator for the destuction of Bristol Bay? Great site Erin, keep it up.

Luke Cottam
I have worked with the fish processing industry for several years and know of the importance of this industry in the Bristol Bay area. This has been a part of my life in the last several years and I hope to continue to make it so! Thank you for your support. This is important to me.

Eric Forrer
Welcome new mines everywhere, just as soon as the mining industry pays for and cleans up every abandoned mine and all consequent dammage worldwide

Everett Leroy Thompson
I live here in Bristol Bay, I have grown up commercial and subsistance fishing, plus hunting and some gathering. It defines a big part of me. It seems to me the ones that are for this Mine want, what it has to offer now, economic opportunity. For me as a commercial fisher and subsistance user, theres a chance it can do just the opposite for me. Morally, I think this is the wrong direction to go in my area. We can harvest a renewable resource, for as long as God permits. As Native People here, this land has provided for us for over 6,000 years. I know that we have a great backyard out there. I hope we can subsist here for the next 6,000 years. Finding Gold here is like finding a pimple on Bristol Bay's Ass, we don't really want it here. Right now the whole body of Bristol Bay is so nice!

John Hathaway
I love your pictures, and Alaska Ihave a 2AC. lot just below the sallows bank on island below the Kowwok If you ever need a camp let me know.Save the NUSHIGAK John.

Frank Waldron
thanks for the great slideshow and your efforts to get the word out about what is at risk if pebble mine is developed.

Saundra Fletcher
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/860981343 -petition for the bills that will be sent later to the Alaska State Legislature

Rotterdam
Nice site with wonderfull pictures!

Christie Akelkok
I oppose the mine BIG TIME, this is my father in laws land and it is a beautiful, serene place. It needs to stay that way, for the sake of the land, wildlife and fish that are up that way. NO WAY TO PEBBLE MINE!! GO SOMEWHERE ELSE!!!

Vanessa Easley
http://easleyvanessa@yahoo.com

Angelica Baalam
I think it would be a great plan to build pebble mine. It would help people to become employed and help the economy. Plus I would get more gold :D

Stephen Cole
Develope the mine.

Antone
Gerald is the one that needs a reality check. He can keep his $10 million to make up for his loss in Northern Dynasty Minerals stock. Beautiful pictures. Hopefully you can keep producing pictures like this for more to see.

Gerald Newton
Nice phots. Now lets get to reality. We need to pay off the lodge owner his $10 million or so and get on with this project. NAK stock is at 9.4 and rising fast. I am buying another thousand shares tomorrow.

Ben
Born and raised in Anchorage. I support mining activities in this state, and appriciate your reasoned objection to this particular mine. Too many objections are not based on reason and that both muddy's the issue and fuels the politicing of the issue. This is a large state and capable of producing both salmon and gold without jeopordizing one for the other.

Jacob
How selfish it would be to destroy our pristine environment for our own financial benefit! Who cares if the permanent fund disappears? What is 750$ a year when the salmon in our rivers are too toxic to eat! If you can't survive in the bush, move-- don't destroy it for everybody/thing else. Anyways, wonderful site-- very helpful.

Danae Nelson
I was researching the pebble mine for a paper. and your page really opened my eyes, I hope that many more people will get to see it. I wish it could be published in newspapers around the state. Thank you

Ryan Hickel
Thank you so much for this vastly informative site. I was born and raised in Anchorage and am currently in exile in Salem, Oregon at Willamette College of Law. I am currently writing my thesis paper on the Pebble Mine. I promise to give full credit to your site for any info I use from it. Personally, I oppose this mine. It's just the wrong kind of mine in the wrong place. It's not like Alaska doesn't have other mining prospects that aren't located at the headwaters of it's two most prolific salmon rivers. I also grew up caribou hunting on Kaskanak creek north of Iguigig, not so far from the mine site, so admittedly I have a personal fondness for the area. P.S. Keep the packrafting/trekking stories coming. My girlfriend and I took our alpaca rafts to Laos last year and did a week long float on the Mekong and one of its tributaries. They are such cool little crafts. Thanks! Ryan Hickel

Patt Church
Greetings the lower 48, I found this link at http://iliamna.com/PedroBayNews.html I am interested in environmental issues. My friend and I are planning a month (or more) visit to Alaska in June. We have been trying to learn more about people, places, and local news before our visit. I am a retired junior high teacher. My friend, Marie, and I are driving from Ohio. We have a very small travel trailer. Patt

Marshall Casteel
I was a resident of Alaska for many many years. I support Mining 100% as long as it is enviromentally right and all labor and management is legal resident americans only. I helped put the Fort Knox mine togather and was on the maintenance staff for some 3 years of time after start up.

Bob
I have hunted the PRECISE area for caribou for over a decade and I am all in favor of developing this mine. Environmental lunacy runs rampant. They refuse to accept any understanding of reality. To scream "the sky is falling" every time someone wants to open the resources of the state wears thin after a while. May I suggest that environmentalists do us all a favor and volunteer to eliminate their usage of natural resources by doing the Kevorkian Thing? And they can apologize for not having been aborted, which most of them favor for others, anyway.

Nancy
Awesome pictures. Much too beautiful to be destroyed by mining.

Kurt Blumberg
I am a new resident of Alaska having recently relocated here from The Peoples's Republic of Boulder, CO. Alaska has so much to offer all those who want to partake of it and develop it. The largest of mines including the proposed Pebble Mine, will be so closely scrutinized and regulated as to render them almost completely harmless to their local environments. Wildlife and habitats and those who depend on them as well as enjoy them will continue to fluorish even in close proximity to the mine[s]. From personal experience I know this to be true. Almost without exception the "doomsday" naysayers who make their dire pronouncements for the destruction of the earth and it's creatures at the hands of mining, oil, and power companies have been proven statistically to be WRONG. Standing in the way of the Pebble project will only hurt Alaska and Alaskans for years to come. It will hamstring a vital and growing segment of the economy[mining] which the state and the nation can ill afford.

Mike Busby
http://www.chickengold.com

clay bezenek
As a commercial fisherman who lives in this state, and a hunter and gatherer who has fed his family with Nushagak moose meat and berries, please do all thats possible to stop this senseless project. Our clean environment has fed people for thousands of years, we cannot endanger that to feed people for 50. Bless you all!

George
Well done! I'm referring my family and friends to your website to see pictures of the area affected by the mining project. I'm retired from a career with BLM and US EPA, and believe me, none of those wild lands would be saved if it weren't for people willing to write letters demanding protection. We're working to make sure BLM receives a pile of letters by the Dec. 27 deadline.

Greg Schmitz
http://www.ptarmigannest.net

Sally
I have lived in Alaska all my life and couldn't even try to PICTURE in my mind what this mine would do to our livilhood as subsistence users. As for Bob 1/29/06, who is he to think we "the people" and his students of this region would get the jobs. We don't need gold that bad, do we? They can get it from the reserves they are holding in Fort Knox or where ever they are holding that yellow rock!

megan
I think your pictures are gorgeous and this pristine place is very special and it's a shame that the mine might destroy that.

mugu
http://www.mugu.com

R. H. D.
I worked on the Pebble Mine Project in 2004. Beware ! I found the folks running the operation in Iliamna to be very unsympathetic to the locals concerns about enviromental issues.

Dave Peck
Having just visted the Kenai Peninsula we viewed the other side of Cook Inlet and wondered what was over there. We found out it is mostly wilderness populated mostly by native people who have lived there, in their own way, for centuries as well as some settlers who pretty much live with the land as it has existed. While in Kenai we also heard about the proposed mine and economic benefits. Thank you for showing us (who have never been there)what is "over there" and what could be impacted by an open pit mine. I have seen the environmental devastation caused by developement back east near Philadelphia and the bay area near San Francisco. Places I have fished as a kid where fish can no longer survive in the water. There are few places left on earth that are true wilderness. I think we have to be careful we don't loose them as they are more valuable than gold. If we are not careful true wilderness will cease to exist. Can the Pebble Mine be developed then one day be shut down leaving the area as it once was or will the effects of mining permanently damage the area. Look at all the mercury and other chemicals that have caused fish to be almost poisonus in some areas. We just need to be careful. Thanks for the photos & all the infos.

Connor McKittrick
Erin - Great article about the Pebble Mine. I never knew how much damage could be caused by one development. I've been reading about your trip and it sounds really exciting, especially the part about the beluga whales. I can't wait to hear more. Good luck!

kevin s.
Thank you for a more in depth look at the proposed mining site. I hate to see this happen to this special area. I travel from Knoxville,TN every year to float the Koktuli and I cant imagine that wonderful river going away. please keep us informed.