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Tell Congress: Save Bristol Bay

Bristol Bay, Alaska. © Bill McDavid

Tell Your Friends

The planet’s last best wild salmon stronghold needs your help. Alaska’s magnificent Bristol Bay remains home to more wild salmon and remarkable wildlife than anywhere else—that’s the good news. Yet these lands and waters are not safe from the looming threat of the proposed Pebble mine. At risk is a thriving fisheries economy, amazing wildlife and an incredible way of life for those who have called this place home for millennia. This is why we need your help to urge Congress to act and protect this pristine habitat for fish and wildlife in Bristol Bay, Alaska—permanently.

Until legal protections are in place, developers will continue to pursue the deposit of gold and copper that lies underneath the world’s last, best wild sockeye salmon run. Mining development here would fill in thousands of acres of wetlands and miles of critical salmon streams, devastating a globally important fishery and harming Indigenous communities who have relied on salmon for thousands of years. Conversely, permanent protection of these lands and waters would allow Alaska Native peoples to advance sustainable economic opportunities and Indigenous authority in local decision-making.

With your help, we can protect Bristol Bay’s world-class salmon run. But we need to act fast. You can be part of this important effort by contacting your federal congressional representatives and urging them to advance permanent protection.

This action will be delivered to:

  • Your U.S. Senators
  • Your U.S. Representative

Please act to permanently protect Bristol Bay, Alaska.

Bristol Bay is one of the last remaining salmon strongholds on the planet, a treasure worth preserving.

Bristol Bay feeds the world, producing more wild salmon than almost anywhere else on Earth. Recognizing the public benefit of this fishery, in 2020 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied a federal permit to construct a large-scale open pit mine in Bristol Bay’s pristine headwaters. After years of new analysis, this is the second consecutive administration to reach the conclusion that destruction of Bristol Bay salmon habitat is contrary to the public interest.

However, because the mineral deposit beneath its headwaters remains, Bristol Bay will continue to be vulnerable to further attempts of large-scale mining. I urge you to help prevent the destruction of a global natural treasure in Alaska by supporting permanent protection for Bristol Bay.

Alaska is one of the few places where an abundance of wild salmon still exists. And the lakes and rivers of Bristol Bay are the crown jewel of Alaska’s incredible salmon habitat. It produces half the world's sockeye salmon, which are key to the culture and way of life of the Alaska Native people that have stewarded these lands and waters for millennia. The Bristol Bay salmon industry is valued at $2.2 billion annually, supports local and regional economies and creates more than 10,000 jobs across the U.S. every year.

Please support Bristol Bay’s world-class salmon habitat, its clean waters, its abundant wildlife, and its Indigenous communities and way of life. Join me in strongly supporting permanent protection of Bristol Bay.

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